New weapon against COVID-19 for the medical world

The anti-COVID drug developed by the Ticino-based BioTech company Humabs Biomed helps to reduce the necessity of hospitalization and risk of a fatal disease progression by 85 percent in early treatment of COVID patients. According to a press release, this is the result of an ongoing Phase III study of the drug VIR-7381, which has been developed in Bellinzona in the canton of Ticino. The drug is based on a monoclonal antibody that the Ticino specialists in antibody therapeutics discovered last year in collaboration with a group of US researchers.

Given the convincing study findings, an independent data monitoring committee has now recommended that the study should be stopped. Vir Biotechnology, which completed the acquisition of Humabs Biomed in 2017, will now submit an Emergency Use Authorization application in the USA and other countries together with the UK pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline.

At the start of the Phase II study, Filippo Riva, CEO of Humabs Biomed, commented in an interview with the online TV service ticinonews that the study was “a huge success for us here in Bellinzona”. Various collaborations, for example with the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB) at the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI: University of Italian Switzerland), the association of hospitals in the canton of Ticino (Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale; EOC) and private hospitals, as well as the canton of Ticino itself, played a part in this success.

Furthermore, Vir Biotechnology and GlaxoSmithKline announced the results from another study on Thursday. Accordingly, VIR-7381 is also effective against the UK, South African and Brazilian virus variants that are currently in circulation. This study has already been submitted for publication to the online server for previously unpublished bioscientific papers, BioRxiv.