Here’s a new weapon for old Covid patients with co-morbidities. A cocktail of monoclonal antibodies can reduce hospitalisation or death by over 70 per cent, according to D Nageshwar Reddy, Chairman of Asian Institute of Gastroenterology (AIG).

The new line of treatment is ideal for patients over 65 years of age, obese, with uncontrolled diabetes, cardiovascular patients and those who are under immunosuppressants. It needs to be given within three to seven days after a patient is tested positive.

He said the method can give results in a few days and can make a positive patient negative in a week. Costing about ₹70,000, the treatment would involve giving the injection through intra-venous method, which would take about an hour.

This can be given to patients above 55 if they have heart-related issues like hypertension, he said.

How it works

Monoclonal antibodies bind to the spike proteins of the virus, limiting the ability of the virus to replicate. “Although the effectiveness against some of the variants have been proven, we are not sure about how it will go against the double mutant B.1.617 or the Indian variant,” he said.

The AIG has begun a study to understand the efficacy of monoclonal antibodies against the double mutant variant of the virus.

“This treatment has the potential to increase mutant variants and that is why irrational use of these antibodies’ cocktails should be absolutely discouraged,”he said.

The drug cocktail has attracted attention after it was on US former President Donald Trump, who recovered within a few days after getting infected with Covid-19.

Efficacy of the treatment

He said the treatment can help patients become RT-PCR Negative in a week. There was also a possibility to explore the prophylactic usage of this combination especially among the high-exposure groups like healthcare workers.