AstraZeneca hopeful on Evusheld versus Omicron

Anglo-Swedish pharma major AstraZeneca’s (LSE: AZN)  Evusheld (tixagevimab co-packaged with cilgavimab), a long-acting antibody combination for the prevention of COVID-19, retained neutralizing activity against the Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant, according to new pre-clinical data.

In this study, Evusheld’s inhibitory concentration 50 (IC50), a measure of neutralizing potency of an antibody, was 171ng/ml and 277ng/ml in two confirmatory tests, which is within the range of neutralizing titres found in someone who has been previously infected with COVID-19.

Evusheld’s IC50 for the original strain of SARS-CoV-2, previously referred to as the Wuhan strain, was approximately 1.3 ng/ml and 1.5 ng/ml, respectively.