One Monoclonal Antibody Therapy Found Effective Against Omicron Sublineages

The peer-review journal Nature published a new study on Mar. 3, 2022, that found no authorized monoclonal antibody (mAbs) therapy could adequately cover all sublineages of the Omicron variant, except for Eli Lilly's Bebtelovimab.

This study's findings indicate that these three sublineages of Omicron are antigenically equidistant from the wild-type SARS-CoV-2 and thus similarly threaten the efficacies of current COVID-19 vaccines.

BA.2 also exhibited marked resistance to 17 of 19 neutralizing monoclonal antibodies tested, including Sotrovimab, which had retained appreciable activity against BA.1 and BA.1+R346K2-4,6. 

And the U.S. NIH issued 'COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel's Statement on the Role of Bebtelovimab for the Treatment of High-Risk, Nonhospitalized Patients With Mild to Moderate COVID-19' on Mar. 2, 2022.

In early February 2022, the U.S. FDA issued emergency authorization to Eli Lilly & Co. for Bebtelovimab to treat mild to moderate COVID-19 in certain people 12 years of age and older.

The study's correspondence author is David D. Ho. These authors contributed equally: Sho Iketani, Lihong Liu, Yicheng Guo, Liyuan Liu, Jasper F.-W. Chan. These researchers disclosed no industry conflicts of interest.