The Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) has approved the emergency use of a highly effective new antibody treatment for COVID-19.
The UAE is the first country in the world to approve Sotrovimab (Vir-7831) for both license and enable immediate patient use after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave an emergency use authorisation to the treatment.
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The new antibody treatment, developed by globally-leading healthcare company GSK, offers the prospect of reducing hospitalisation for more than 24 hours and fatalities by as much as 85% when administered to patients as an early treatment for COVID-19.
The UAE has authorized the emergency use of Sotrovimab, a monoclonal antibody, for the treatment of patients aged 12 years or older with mild to moderate COVID-19 disease who are at risk of progression to hospitalisation or death.
Sotrovimab has demonstrated effectiveness as a monotherapy against widely circulating variants of the disease in preclinical studies.
“Such a new qualitative achievement would not have been possible had it not been for the UAE leadership’s keenness to proactively address the pandemic, attract and provide innovative medicines that prove effective and efficient, and adopting them as treatment protocols,” said Dr. Abdul Rahman bin Mohammad bin Nasser Al Owais, Minister of Health and Prevention.
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“The new medicine will greatly contribute to speeding up the recovery of patients, reducing Covid-19-related deaths and hospitalization period in intensive care units. It will also support the country’s efforts being made to conduct Covid-19 tests and administer vaccines, retaining its leading position among the world’s foremost countries, dealing efficiently with the Covid-19 pandemic,” Al Owais added.
He said the achievement is yet another breakthrough that crowns the painstaking efforts made by our wise leadership, which spares no effort to harness all capabilities and resources to protect the health of UAE people and safeguard the country’s gains achieved over the course of the past years at all levels. (RA0
