Switzerland builds stocks of anti-Covid treatments

Switzerland has reserved 3,000 doses of GlaxoSmithKline's monoclonal antibody drug. Keystone / Laurent Gillieron

Switzerland has reserved 3,000 doses of the GlaxoSmithKline monoclonal sotrovimab drug to treat patients infected with Covid-19.

This adds to the 3,000 doses of a similar medicine, RegN-Cov 2, developed by Switzerland’s Roche and US biotech company Regeneron.

Monoclonal antibodies, which are cloned in culture and injected into patients, are seen as highly promising treatments to neutralise the virus, particularly in serious cases of infection. The antibody was discovered by Swiss company Humabs BioMed.

+ Read how the Institute of Research in Biomedicine (IRB) developed therapeutic uses for monoclonal antibodies with Humabs BioMed (well before Covid-19 was known)

Although the sotrovimab drug has yet to be granted regulatory approval in Switzerland, trials by GlaxoSmithKline show promising results, the government said in a press release on FridayExternal link.

The reservation of 3,000 doses of the drug was made on the recommendation of the Swiss National Covid-19 Taskforce.

The drug is intended as a treatment for at-risk patients who have an increased risk of severe infection.