An antibody cocktail casirivimab and imdevimab administered together for use in COVID-19.
Casirivimab and imdevimab administered together are authorized for the treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 in adults, as well as in pediatric patients at least 12 years of age and weighing at least 40 kg, who have received positive results of direct SARS-CoV-2 viral testing and are at high risk for progressing to severe COVID-19 and/or hospitalization.
The two virus-neutralizing antibodies that form the cocktail bind non-competitively to the critical receptor binding domain of the virus’s spike protein, which diminishes the ability of mutant viruses to escape treatment and protects against spike variants that have arisen in the human population.
Trials suggests that monoclonal antibodies such as casirivimab and imdevimab have the greatest benefit when given early after diagnosis and in patients who have not yet mounted their own immune response or who have high viral load.
Casirivimab and imdevimab are not authorized for use in patients who are hospitalized or require oxygen therapy due to COVID-19, or for people currently using chronic oxygen therapy because of an underlying comorbidity who require an increase in baseline oxygen flow rate due to COVID-19.
Casirivimab and imdevimab antibody cocktail is designed to mimic what the well-functioning immune system does by using very potent antibodies to neutralize the virus.
Data showed significant reductions in virus levels within days of receiving the combination, which were associated with significantly fewer medical visits.
Its benefits are greatest in patients most at risk for poor outcomes due to high viral load, ineffective immune response at baseline or pre-existing risk factors.
No variants resistant to the cocktail were identified in the clinical trial.
The recommended dose is 1,200 mg of casirivimab and 1,200 mg of imdevimab (2,400 mg total) administered as a single intravenous infusion.
It was designed specifically to block infectivity of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
The use of subcutaneous regeneron prevented symptomatic Covid-19 in previously uninfected household contacts of infected persons, and among participants who became infected Regeneron reduced the duration of symptomatic disease and the duration of high viral load.