China is one step away from having a cure for COVID-19. The country is in the process of getting closer to approval of its first drug for COVID-19, possibly in a few weeks from now.
The pace of making a cure for COVID-19 comes as Chinese scientists race to find an effective treatment for the disease. Finding a cure is critical for them before they can consider reopening their borders, even when vaccination is a priority.
According to China's Ministry of Science and Technology, conditional approval could be given for the neutralizing monoclonal antibody treatment jointly developed by Chinese and US researchers by the end of the year.
Among drug manufacturers in China, the neutralizing monoclonal antibody combination therapy is expected to be the first to be unveiled in the country and gain approval for market use in December. It will also likely be the first to receive an emergency use authorization in a developed country like the US.
This combination therapy was jointly developed by Tsinghua University, Third People's Hospital of Shenzhen, and Brii Biosciences, a company with two headquarters in China and the US.
"The human body produces a large number of antibodies, but not all of them have antiviral properties. The aim of our study was to select the strongest one that can be used as an antibody drug to treat infected patients," said Zhang Linqi, professor at the Faculty of Medicine at Tsinghua University, quoted from Global Times.
Tao Lina, an immunologist, said that the theory of neutralizing antibody-based therapy is to use antibodies in drugs to neutralize viruses.
They can be used for the treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 or for post-exposure prevention. Brii Biosciences announced in late August that the SARS-CoV-2 BRII-196/BRII-198 therapy demonstrated a statistically significant reduction of 78% in hospitalizations and deaths in phase III clinical trials conducted in the USA, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico, Argentina and the Philippines.
Phase III clinical trials led by China's leading respiratory expert Zhong Nanshan and conducted in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, as well as Nanjing and Yangzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province, are claimed to have yielded interesting results.
The drug has been used among more than 700 infected patients in the recent outbreak in China, caused by the Delta variant in Shenzhen, Ruili, Nanjing, Putian and Heihe. This therapy is also said to be effective against major coronavirus variants, including the Delta, Lambda and MU variants.
