AstraZeneca on Thursday cemented its lead in bringing a preventative COVID-19 shot for the non-infected to market for people who do not respond well to vaccines, saying its antibody drug cocktail offered 83 per cent protection over six months, report agencies.
The injected therapy, called AZD7442 or Evusheld, had previously been shown to confer 77 per cent protection against symptomatic illness after three months, in an earlier readout of the late-stage PROVENT trial in August.
Meanwhile, the overall number of Covid cases is fast approaching 256 million amid the global race to vaccinate masses against the infectious disease.
According to Johns Hopkins University (JHU), the total case count mounted to 255,926,158 while the death toll from the virus reached 5,142,971 Thursday evening.
More than 7.58 billion doses have been administered across 184 countries, according to data collected by Bloomberg. The latest rate was roughly 34.3 million doses a day.
The US has recorded 47,420,042 cases to date and more than 767,432 people have died so far from the virus in the country, as per the university data.
Brazil, which has been experiencing a new wave of cases since January, has registered 21,977,661 cases so far, while its Covid death toll rose to 611,851.
India's Covid-19 tally rose to 34,466,598 on Wednesday, as 10,197 new cases were registered in 24 hours across the country, as per the federal health ministry data.
Report from Washington adds: Pfizer said Thursday it will sell 10 million Covid-19 treatment courses for Covid-19 to the US government for $5.3 billion, pending approval from regulators.
The pharmaceutical giant asked the US Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday for emergency use authorization for its Paxlovid antiviral pill which has been shown to cut hospitalization or death by nearly 90 per cent among newly-infected high risk patients treated within three days of the onset of symptoms.
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