RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Sorrento Therapeutics, a biotech company based in San Diego (USA), which is developing an antibody treatment against Covid-19, will be stepping firmly into markets of countries like Brazil and Mexico, said the company’s CEO Henri Ji.
As certain countries are experiencing greater logistical challenges to administer vaccines, which often require very cold temperatures, opportunities are emerging for companies developing treatments and prophylactics that are easier to transport and store, he said.
“These countries need an alternative,” said Henri Ji, the company’s CEO.
The emergence of new and dangerous SARS-CoV-2 variants has caused concern among health officials and researchers in recent months. But tackling an evolving virus won’t necessarily be an eternal game for drug developers, notes Robbie Allen, research executive at Sorrento.
“I don’t think high-performing variants that could emerge are infinite,” he says. “The number of variants that are fit enough to compete in the overall pandemic context is lower,” he adds.
As evidence, Allen points to the convergence between amino acid changes that have occurred within the virus in several parts of the world, which suggests that evolutionary pressures are repeatedly driving the virus toward similar end points.
In October 2020, the Brazilian health regulatory agency ANVISA authorized the company to begin phase 2 trials of the antibody-based drug in Brazil, with about 400 volunteers. The drug is named “Covishield.”
According to Sorrento, these antibodies bind to the coronavirus spike protein (like a crown around the virus) and prevent the virus from entering the cell and replicating to spread the infection.
The company’s shares on NASDAQ were trading up on Tuesday, March 9th, after the announcement of an agreement with the Mount Sinai Health System to develop an antibody cocktail that can neutralize the Sars-CoV-2 virus and variants that have emerged in the UK and South Africa.
Source: Valor