GSK, Vir To Supply Additional 60k Doses Of Sotrovimab To US Govt. For Early Treatment Of Covid-19

(RTTNews) - Pharma major GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK) and Vir Biotechnology, Inc. (VIR), on Tuesday said the U.S. Government will purchase an additional 0.6 million doses of Sotrovimab, an investigational monoclonal antibody for the early treatment of Covid-19, that will be delivered throughout the first quarter of 2022.

In addition, the agreement also includes the option for the U.S. Government to purchase additional doses in the second quarter.

Sotrovimab, which was granted Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May 2021, is an investigational single-dose intravenous (IV) infusion SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibody.

Under the EUA, Sotrovimab can be used for the treatment of mild-to-moderate Covid-19 in adults and pediatric patients who attained the age of 12 and older weighing at least 40 kilograms.

"Preclinical data generated through both pseudo-virus and live virus testing demonstrate sotrovimab retains activity against all tested SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern including Delta and Omicron," the companies said in a statement.

GSK and Vir expect to manufacture approximately two million doses globally in the first half of 2022 and additional doses in the second half of the year.

Till date, GSK and Vir have received binding agreements for the sale of approximately 1.7 million doses of sotrovimab worldwide.