New Covid drug 'effective against all mutations' of Omicron variant, says GSK
Yahoo News UK
ROSS MCGUINNESS
7 December 2021, 0:59 pm

British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline says it has developed a coronavirus drug that is effective against all mutations of the Omicron variant.

GSK said its treatment, Xevudy (or sotrovimab), an antibody-based Covid therapy, works against all 37 identified mutations to date in Omicron’s spike protein.

The data from early-stage studies is yet to be published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

Last week, GSK and its US partner Vir Biotechnology said pre-clinical data showed sotrovimab worked against key mutations of the Omicron variant.

The development comes amid growing concerns as to the rate of spread of coronavirus. On Tuesday, a Covid expert warned that Omicron cases in the UK will double every two days.

Also on Tuesday, it emerged Boris Johnson has told his Cabinet that Omicron appears to be “more transmissible” than Delta, Downing Street said.

However, a spokesman for the prime minister said there was no debate around the Cabinet table on whether to introduce Plan B of the Government’s plans to control the virus this winter.

Sotrovimab is designed to latch on to the spike protein on the surface of the coronavirus, but Omicron has been found to have an unusually high number of mutations on that protein.