Study on Monoclonal Antibody-drug cocktail for Covid-19 released

Naveen S Garewal
Tribune News Service
Hyderabad, November 2

 Claiming to be the World’s First Published and peer-reviewed study on Monoclonal Antibody-drug cocktail---believed to be a “miracle cure” for Covid-19---the AIG Hospitals, Asian Healthcare Foundation and the Institute of Life Sciences on Wednesday released a copy of the Journal of Internal Medicine (JIM) that suggests that Monoclonal Therapy reduces severe disease and death in high-risk individuals infected with the Delta Variant of SARS CoV 2 by 100 per cent.

 This Monoclonal Antibody-drug cocktail was reported to be a miracle cure for coronavirus after being administered to former US President Donald Trump. But at that stage, there was no scientific evidence, barring a few studies showing its effectiveness.

 Dr D Nageshwar Reddy, Chairman, AIG Hospitals, while releasing the report published in JIM, an acclaimed publication that reviews medical research, said: “The results are astonishing and will shape the public health policy for treatment of Covid-19 especially in high-risk individuals, those above the age of 60 or even below 60, but with diabetes, hypertension, obesity, pregnant woman, people with chronic diseases, all will benefit immensely. We have clearly demonstrated in our research that when given at the right time, Monoclonal Therapy stops the progression of the disease completely”.

Releasing the details of the study conducted on patients, Dr Reddy said over 98 per cent samples tested were identified as those from the Delta Variant and after administering the Monoclonal Antibody-drug cocktail 75 per cent of the Patients became RT-PCR Negative by the 7th Day and 78 per cent of the Patients got relieved of their clinical symptoms like fever, cough, etc. by the 7th Day.

Dr Reddy further said that no one who had been administered Monoclonal Antibody-drug cocktail developed severe disease or died, nor was there any increase in inflammatory markers in these patients. The important finding was that none of the patients reported any post-COVID symptom and that the neutralizing activity of the Monoclonal Therapy was similar in both the original Wuhan Strain and the Delta Strain.

Giving out details of the collaborators, Dr Reddy said that three major scientific institutions conducted this study jointly. This included the research arm of the AIG Hospital, the Asian Healthcare Foundation and the patients were recruited from Fever Clinic at AIG Hospitals.

Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (A unit of CSIR) was involved in sequencing the genome of the virus strains collected to identify and confirm the Delta Variant, and the Institute of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad tested the neutralizing activity of the cocktail against the delta variant in their lab.

Dr Reddy said that the effectiveness of this drug cocktail was now being studied among hospitalised patients where the possibility of use of this therapy as prophylaxis was being explored.