London (TIP): A new, experimental anti-viral treatment used for some worst-affected Covid-19 patients has been found to save lives, according to the results of a UK trial on Wednesday, June 16.

In the ongoing Randomised Evaluation of Covid-19 Therapy (RECOVERY) trial, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals’ combination of drugs was found to benefit patients with severe symptoms of the virus who had not mounted a natural antibody response of their own.

It not only cut down the numbers requiring a ventilator, among the 9,875 people who took part in the trial between September 2020 and May this year, but also reduced the duration of their hospital stay. Sir Peter Horby, Professor of Emerging Infectious Diseases in the Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, and Joint Chief Investigator for the RECOVERY trial, declared the results as “very exciting”.

“The hope was that by giving a combination of antibodies targeting the SARS-CoV-2 virus we would be able to reduce the worst manifestations of Covid-19. There was, however, great uncertainty about the value of antiviral therapies in late-stage Covid-19 disease,” said Horby.

“It is wonderful to learn that even in advanced Covid-19 disease, targeting the virus can reduce mortality in patients who have failed to mount an antibody response of their own,’ he said.

The treatment uses a combination of two monoclonal antibodies – casirivimab and imdevimab, known as REGEN-COV in the US – that bind specifically to two different sites on the coronavirus spike protein, neutralising the ability of the virus to infect cells. “We now know that this antibody combination is not only bad for the virus but it is also good for the sickest patients who have failed to mount a natural immune response of their own,” said Sir Martin Landray, Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at the Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford.