AstraZeneca have started testing a combination of two monoclonal antibodies for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.
The first participants have been dosed in a Phase I trial of AZD7442, a combination of two monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) in development for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.
The trial, called NCT04507256, will evaluate the safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetics of AZD7442. The trial will include up to 48 healthy participants in the United Kingdom aged 18 to 55 years and is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), part of the U.S. Department of Defense, and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
According to the drugmaker, if AZD7442 proves to be tolerated in the trial, AstraZeneca will progress it into larger late-stage Phase II and Phase III trials to evaluate its efficacy as a potential preventative and treatment approach against COVID-19.
AZD7442 is a combination of two mAbs, which aim to mimic natural antibodies, derived from convalescent patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Discovered by Vanderbilt University Medical Center and licensed to AstraZeneca in June 2020, the mAbs were optimised by AstraZeneca with half-life extension and reduced Fc receptor binding. The half-life extended mAbs should afford at least six months of protection from COVID-19.2-5 In a recent Nature publication, the mAbs were shown preclinically to block the binding of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to host cells and protect against infection in cell and animal models of disease.
Read the AstraZeneca release