Data from dozens of trials also suggests that antibody treatments could be given in much smaller amounts than current practice.
has rendered many antibodies ineffective. Of the six drugs the researchers analysed, just two were predicted to retain any effectiveness against the fast-rising BA.2 subvariant of Omicron. One, imdevimab, is predicted to be 60% effective against hospitalization caused by BA.2, if given at very high doses. But the authors project that the sotrovimab, which is 63% effective at preventing hospitalization in people infected with the BA.
“This type of prediction is very useful in designing clinical trials that are most likely to provide benefit to patients,” wrote Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, on Twitter. But she also noted that clinical trials would be needed to confirm whether drugs such as imdevimab are still effective against BA.2.
John Moore, a vaccine researcher at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City, says the finding that antibody drugs might be effective at much lower doses could allow the therapies to reach many more people. But he worries that the conservative tendencies of doctors and regulators might limit the study’s real-world impact. “I can’t imagine a physician is going to read that preprint and say, let’s cut the dose by three and do three patients instead of one.
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