Health Canada on Thursday gave the green light to the use of AstraZeneca’s Evusheld treatment to prevent COVID-19 in people who have a compromised immune system or cannot be vaccinated. It may be prescribed for adults and young people over 12 years old.
Evusheld is a combination of two drugs, tixagevimab and cilgavimab, injected one after the other. These are long-acting monoclonal antibodies “directed against the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2”, which neutralize the virus.
They act for six months and induce a 77% reduction in the risk of presenting symptoms of COVID-19 following their administration, and 83% six months later, according to a study conducted by AstraZeneca.
Health Canada states that, “Based on laboratory studies, Evusheld is expected to retain neutralizing activity against Omicron’s BA.2 subvariant, which is now the dominant variant in many communities in Canada.” The agency is also asking AstraZeneca to continue to inform it of the effectiveness of the treatment against the different variants of the virus.
If certain variants prove to be too resistant to Evusheld, Health Canada has authorized a possible doubling of the dose administered, which then goes from 150 mg to 300 mg for each product.
Canada has already signed an agreement with AstraZeneca to receive 100,000 doses this year.
With The Canadian Press
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