Therese Raphael & Sam Fazeli, Columnists

A Covid Treatment That Promises to Fight Off Omicron

GlaxoSmithKline says its antibody treatment sotrovimab is effective at preventing serious illness, even with the latest variant. But it’s still no substitute for vaccines.

December 7, 2021 at 2:36 PM UTC

By Therese Raphael and Sam Fazeli

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GlaxoSmithKline Plc has delivered some good news amid mounting concerns about the omicron variant. Its research showed that sotrovimab, the Covid-19 antibody treatment it developed with Vir Biotechnology Inc., is effective against the full combination of mutations seen in the new variant. Will this make it easier to live with omicron? Bloomberg Opinion’s Therese Raphael talks to Sam Fazeli, senior pharmaceutical analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence, about the development.

Therese Raphael: Let’s start with the basics. Sotrovimab is a monoclonal antibody treatment — what are these and how are they used against the virus?