World Heath Organization recommends two new drugs to combat virus
Source: Washington Post
World Heath Organization recommends two new drugs to combat virus
By Ellen Francis, Frances Stead Sellers, Yasmeen Abutaleb, Andrew Jeong and Meryl Kornfield
Today at 4:03 a.m. EST|Updated today at 6:12 p.m. EST
This article is free to access.
The World Health Organization has recommended two new drugs for patients with covid-19, amid concerns that the highly contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus can thwart many treatments.
A WHO panel “strongly recommended” baricitinib, an oral medication by U.S. pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, for people with severe covid-19 to be given along with corticosteroids, and it “conditionally recommended” the monoclonal antibody treatment sotrovimab for people with nonsevere cases who are at high risk of hospitalization.
The two drugs, which both received emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, have been invited for WHO prequalification — a process that evaluates their efficacy and safety to improve access in lower-income countries.
“The extent to which these medicines will save lives depends on how widely available and affordable they will be,” the global health body said in a statement released Friday.
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/01/14/covid-omicron-variant-live-updates/