Evusheld Effective Against Emerging BA.x Variants

Recent data published in the peer-review New England Journal of Medicine show that AstraZeneca's Evusheld monoclonal antibody (mAbs) retains neutralizing activity against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron subvariants, including Omicron BA.5, BA.4, and BA.21.

The FRNT50 levels reported for Evusheld in the study were higher for Omicron BA.1 than BA.5 (351 ng/ml compared to 192 ng/ml), meaning that neutralization activity for BA.5 was greater.

Evusheld (tixagevimab and cilgavimab) is the only mAbs or antibody combination with authorization for pre-exposure prophylaxis of COVID-19 shown to neutralize all known Omicron variants.

Furthermore, the U.S. FDA recently reviewed Evusheld's neutralizing activity against the emerging BA.4/.5 subvariants and has included the data in the revised Evusheld Authorisation.

John L. Perez, MD, MBA, MA, Senior Vice President, Head of Late Development, Vaccines & Immune Therapies, AstraZeneca, commented in a press release on July 21, 2022, "By combining two antibodies with different and complementary activities against SARS-CoV-2, Evusheld was designed to evade potential resistance with the emergence of new variants."

On February 11, 2022, the U.S. Defense Department awarded AstraZeneca an $855 million contract to manufacture, distribute, and store Evusheld for the general population.

In the USA, the federal government has distributed about 777,532 doses of Evusheld since December 2021.

Additional mAbs news is posted at Coronavirus Today.