Swissmedic authorises new drug for respiratory disease
Swiss drugs regulator Swissmedic has authorised a new medicine to treat colds and cases of acute bronchitis in infants and young children. Beyfortus is used to treat respiratory tract diseases caused by the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
The step was taken “after careful consideration”, Swissmedic said on Thursday. It is an important step towards prophylaxis against RS viruses, a common cause of respiratory diseases, a Swissmedic spokesperson told the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA.
Paediatricians and children’s hospitals in particular have been waiting for the approval. According to the Swiss government, RSV infections in small children in Switzerland lead to around 1,000 hospital admissions per year.
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Beyfortus from the pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis is used as a prophylaxis; it is not a vaccine in the conventional sense. The drug is administered intramuscularly as a single injection. Beyfortus is the second such drug against RS viruses. The product Synagis has been authorised in Switzerland since 1999.
RS viruses are common pathogens worldwide and cause many colds in autumn and winter. In newborns and infants, they can lead to pneumonia and hospitalisation.
However, they can also cause severe respiratory illnesses and become dangerous in older people and those with weakened immune systems. According to the British pharmaceutical company GSK, the virus causes more than 270,000 hospital admissions and around 20,000 deaths during hospitalisation in people aged 60 and over in Europe every year.
Catch-up effect after pandemic
After the Covid pandemic subsided, severe respiratory diseases increased significantly again in many countries around the world. Some paediatric clinics were overrun with patients. Experts suspect that this is due to a catch-up effect after the pandemic, when comparatively few children came into contact with RSV.
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The disease can currently only be treated symptomatically. An RSV infection does not leave any lasting immunity. The virus can therefore re-infect people of any age.
No vaccine against RSV is available in Switzerland. The EU Commission authorised the vaccine Arexvy in the summer, and the US did the same before that. Vaccines against the RS virus had been sought for years. Experts believe that they could generate billions in sales over the next ten years.
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