“Roche is deeply committed to supporting the ongoing efforts to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, mitigate the deadly second wave and save lives.

We are optimistic that the availability of antibody cocktail in India can help in minimising hospitalisation, ease the burden on healthcare systems and play a key role in treatment of high risk patients before their condition worsens,” said V Simpson Emmanuel, MD and CEO, Roche Pharma India.

The antibody cocktail has to be given for mild to moderate COVID-19 in adults and pediatric patients (12 years of age or older, weighing at least 40 kg) who are confirmed to be infected with SARS-COV2 and who are at high risk of developing severe Covid-19 disease and do not require oxygen.

“It has been shown to help these high-risk patients before their condition worsens, reducing the risk of hospitalization and fatality by 70 percent and shortening the duration of symptoms by four days,” the statement claimed.

The cocktail can potentially benefit 200,000 patients as each of the 100,000 packs that will be available in India can treat two patients, Roche and Cipla said.

It can be procured through a valid prescription. The intravenous administration takes about 20 to 30 minutes. For the subcutaneous route, four syringes of 2.5 ml need to be administered concurrently at four different sites on the abdomen or thigh.

Each pack can treat two patients as the dosage per patient is a combined dose of 1200 mg (600 mg of Casirivimab and 600 mg of Imdevimab) administered by intravenous infusion or subcutaneous route. The vials need to be stored at 2°C to 8°C. If opened for the first patients’ dose, a vial can be used for the second patients’ dose within 48 hours if stored at 2°C to 8°C..

Casirivimab and Imdevimab are human monoclonal antibodies produced by recombinant DNA technology in the lab that are specifically directed against the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, designed to block the virus’ attachment and entry into human cells.

“Thanks to its specific engineering of two neutralising antibodies which bind to different parts of the virus spike, the Casirivimab and Imdevimab cocktail remains efficacious against widest spread variants and reduces the risk of losing its neutralisation potency against new emerging variants,” Cipla claimed.vimab) in India..

Source: Medindia