A drug co-developed by GlaxoSmithKline PLC (LSE:GSK) to treat moderate-to-severe Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases is effective against the Omicron variant, according to preclinical data.
GSK said it will confirm the read-out with further lab-based pseudo-virus work on its discovery, called sotrovimab, which was jointly developed with Nasdaq-listed Vir Biotechnology.
Vir’s chief executive George Scangos said: “Sotrovimab was deliberately designed with a mutating virus in mind.
“By targeting a highly conserved region of the spike protein that is less likely to mutate, we hoped to address both the current SARS-CoV-2 virus and future variants that we expected would be inevitable.”
The product is already available in hospitals in the US under emergency-use authorisation.
It has also been submitted to the European Medicines Agency for marketing authorisation under the tradename Xevudy.
Earlier this week, the US Food & Drug Administration narrowly approved Merck’s equivalent drug for use in people with moderate-to-severe COVID-19.
Pointedly, it wasn’t given the green light for use on children. GSK’s treatment can be given to those over the age of 12.