AstraZeneca Announces Non-Vaccine COVID Prevention Therapy with 77% Efficacy

August 20, 2021

AstraZeneca just announced that they’ve developed a non-vaccine therapy, called AZD7442, which reduces the risk of developing COVID-19. This combination of two long-acting antibodies* (LAAB) is administered intramuscularly and was found to cut the risk of developing symptomatic COVID-19 by 77% compared to placebo in the clinical trial.

The trial included 5,197 unvaccinated participants and more than 75% had comorbidities, including those with immunosuppressive disease or taking immunosuppressive medications, diabetes, severe obesity or cardiac disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic kidney, and chronic liver disease.

* AZD7442 is a combination of two LAABs – tixagevimab (AZD8895) and cilgavimab (AZD1061) – derived from B-cells donated by recovering patients after SARS-CoV-2 virus infection.