As drugs like Ivermectin, Remdesivir, and plasma therapy which were used to treat Covid-19 have come and gone out of vogue, Medanta Hospital began using a ‘new cocktail’ of antibodies that could reduce hospitalisation need by up to 80 per cent.
“There is now hope in a new cocktail of antibodies to be the next game-changer, this concept that has proven to be very effective,” said Dr. Naresh Trehan, Chairperson Medanta. “When US President Donald Trump was infected, he was given a cocktail of these antibodies and he was back in the White House in two days,” he added.
Medanta began giving this treatment to patients starting Monday this week.
“These are laboratory-made antibodies. There are two of them- Casirivimab and Imdevimab to cover the virus properly. These stop the virus from entering the cells of the patient, so they don’t get any nutrition to multiply. An indication is that it must be given in the viral phase when the virus multiplies. After 10 days that process finishes, so there is no point after that. This cocktail is very effective in blocking the replication of the virus,” he said.
However, Dr. Trehan warned that not everyone can ‘drink’ this currently, it has been given an emergency use authorisation for the high-risk category patients only.
“What is approved right now is people who are at high risk, people who get very strong symptoms quickly like very high fever, elderly and even young with comorbidities. So this is applicable when someone tests RT-PCR positive,” he clarified.
If you test positive, one can make an inquiry if they are eligible and this is the best weapon we have right now to contain the virus quickly, he added.
The antibody therapy can hopefully reduce hospitalisations in 80% of the people who test positive. The therapy can be given to people over 12 years of age, but with a minimum of 40 kgs of weight.
“It is sad that the therapy came when so many have already been infected. I wish it had arrived two months ago and we would have been able to save many more lives,” Dr. Trehan said.
Whoever now tests positive should explore if they are candidates for this treatment, he added.
The Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation (CDSCO) recently provided an emergency use authorisation (EUA) for the Antibody Cocktail to be made available in India by pharma giant Cipla. The per patient dose will cost around Rs. 60,000 in India.
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