Zydus Cadila seeks clinical trial approval for its antibody cocktail in India

The treatment candidate, ZRC-3308, has shown to prevent lung damage in animals during trials and was well tolerated, the company said, according to the report.

The medicine is a cocktail of two monoclonal antibodies that act like the natural antibodies that the body produces to fight infections, stated the report.

"At this juncture, there is a critical need to explore safer and more efficacious treatments to combat COVID," Zydus Cadila's managing director, Sharvil Patel, said in a stock exchange filing, according to the report.

The drugmaker is seking approval of early-to late-stage human clinical trials from the Drugs Controller General of India.

Antibody cocktails made by Vir Biotechnology and GlaxoSmithKline as well as those made by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Eli Lilly have also been given emergency use approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Regeneron and Roche's antibody cocktail's have been approved by DCGI and distributed in India by Cipla. The first batch of these medicines arrived in India last week, said the report.

Yesterday, an 84-year-old Covid-19 patient who was treated with a monoclonal antibodies cocktail in a hospital in Gurgaon was released from a hospital here after receiving the jab the day before.

"The experience shows when given in first seven days of (Covid) infection, 70-80 per cent of people who are going to be entering hospitals for treatment will not need hospitalisation," Dr Trehan, head of Medanta Hospital, was quoted as saying by ANI.