Zydus Cadila seeks drug regulator nod for trials of COVID antibody cocktail

Global pharmaceutical company Zydus Cadila has urged the Indian drug regulator to grant it approval for the clinical trials of its antibody cocktail to treat COVID-19, Reuters reported.

The treatment, ZRC-3308 is a mix of two monoclonal antibodies, which resembles natural antibodies produced by the human immune system to fight infections.

The company earlier claimed that the cocktail has shown to reduce lung damage during animal trials and was “safe and well-tolerated”.

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The company wants permission for early-to late-stage human clinical trials of the cocktail.

“At this juncture, there is a critical need to explore safer and more efficacious treatments to combat COVID,” Reuters quoted firm’s managing director Sharvil Patel as saying in a stock exchange filing.

Similar treatments developed by Vir Biotechnology and GlaxoSmithKline and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly have been approved for emergency use authorisations by the US Food and Drug Administration.

The medication by Regeneron and Roche has received emergency use approval in India and is being distributed by Cipla.

India on Thursday logged 2,11,298 COVID-19 cases and 3,847 deaths, tallying a total of 2.73 crore cases so far.