EU COVID-19 antibody ready for clinical trials

CORAT Therapeutics reports the start of production of the first batch of  the therapeutic human COVID-19 antibody COR-101 for Phase I testing. COR-101 efficiently blocks the cell entry of SARS-CoV-2, thereby reducing infection with the  new coronavirus. Despite great hope into pandemic vaccine candidates, antivirals such as COR-101 are urgently needed to reduce virus titres, infectivity of infected people and the number of severe disease courses thus rescuing a good part of the 2 million people expected to die annually from COVID-19 without an effective therapeutic intervention.In the US, which has put three-digit million dollar funding into the development and sourcing of two Phase III antibodies – Regeneron’s REGN-COV and Lilliy’s Ly-COV555 – both developers have already applied for Emergency Use Application. In contrast, Europe’s policy makers have solely focussed on vaccination against SARS-CoV-2, leaving doctors at ICUs empty-handed with no sufficient medical means to  efficiently save the lives of EU patients.As COR-101 directly attacks the virus, its clinical use will focus on helping the patients who cannot be saved by vaccination. COR-101 is is designed to neutralize the coronavirus in patients who cannot built enough of their own antibodies in time including immuno-senescent patients whose immune system is not strong enough to create an immune response strong enough to fight of the pathogen.