The treatments for the novel coronavirus continue to make headlines. This time, it’s about the drug called sotrovimab.
Covid treatment drug can cause drug-resistant mutations
It’s been just reported that the Australian virologists have uncovered a drug-resistant mutation in the Covid-19 virus associated with the drug sotrovimab.
They also made sure to say that without the monitoring of patients given the treatment the mutated virus could spread in the community.
The world-first findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday. It’s also important to mention the fact that these are the result of an analysis of the first 100 patients in western Sydney during the Delta outbreak in 2021 to be given sotrovimab.
According to the official reports, sotrovimab is a monoclonal antibody that is available in many countries to treat vulnerable patients who are at risk of severe disease and death due to Covid-19 infection.
It’s also important to mention the fact that the drug must be administered via infusion within the first five days of Covid-19 infection. It’s also worth mentioning the fact that the drug prevents Covid-19 symptoms from becoming severe.
It is one of the few human-engineered monoclonal antibodies that can target Omicron.
The lead author of the study, Dr Rebecca Rockett, said the following:
“We’re not sure if sotrovimab helps neutralise the virus early on in the infection before it develops resistance. But often drugs are given to treat Covid-19 patients and there’s not really any follow-up done.”
She continued and said this as quoted by The Guardian.
“We realise that you can’t follow every patient with PCR testing or genomic surveillance, but we are trying to advocate for patients that progress to severe disease despite the treatment that we investigate using genomics to see whether they’ve acquired any resistance mutations.”
Stay tuned for more news and also make sure to remain safe.
