The Apollo Hospital on Friday said they have started an “antibody cocktail treatment” for COVID-19 patients, who have mild symptoms and comorbidities. These are people who have the risk of developing a severe illness, the hospital said.
A 65-year-old man from Delhi, who has multiple comorbidities, was the first COVID-19 patient to receive “monoclonal antibody therapy”.
“Apollo Hospitals begins offering the antibody cocktail [Casirivimab and Imdevimab] to patients with mild and moderate COVID and at high risk of developing severe COVID,” the hospital said in a statement.
Anupam Sibal, Group Medical Director of Apollo Hospitals Group, said: “We are glad to launch a pan India programme for advanced treatment, comprising neutralising monoclonal antibodies for our patients with COVID-19. Monoclonal antibodies bind to and ‘neutralise’ the SARS-CoV-2 virus. We are confident this treatment option will significantly boost our efforts to bring the pandemic under control and help prevent progression of the disease in those with mild to moderate COVID-19”.
Rajesh Chawla, Senior Pulmonologist at the hospital, said the reason this therapy is termed as an antibody cocktail is because it comprises a mixture of more than two biological drugs (Casirivimab and Imdevimab) that mirror the human antibodies in the immune system.
”This consequently help fight the infection, similar to the natural antibodies produced when one gets infected with COVID. Both strengthen the immune defence system. This drug is said to restrict pathogens and virus from entering the patient’s body, from where they otherwise would have derived nutrition and multiplied,” Dr. Chawla said.
