China approves emergency use of two COVID-19 drugs

The Chinese drug control body granted emergency use authorization to two drugs based on monoclonal antibodies to treat COVID-19 in adolescents and adults with mild to moderate symptoms, official media reported today.

The drugs, called BRII-196 and BRII-198, have been developed by Tsinghua University, Shenzhen (south) People’s Hospital No. 3 and Brii Biosciences company, according to state agency Xinhua.

It is, according to this medium, the first treatment against coronavirus of this type that is approved in China under independent intellectual property rights.

The information released by the National Administration of Medical Products indicates that the drugs are used in combination to treat adolescents and adults with mild to moderate symptoms and high risk factors that could lead to the evolution to serious states of the disease.

At the moment, the treatment has been approved for use in adolescents aged 12 to 17 years who weigh more than 40 kilos.

The drugs use antibodies obtained from patients who passed the COVID-19 and that they have demonstrated their ability to neutralize the virus during the phases of previously developed clinical trials.

Brii Biosciences announced in late August that the treatment demonstrated up to a 78% reduction in hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 during a third phase of clinical trials carried out in the US, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico, Argentina and the Philippines.

In China, the third phase of testing has been carried out in the cities of Guangzhou and Shenzhen (South Guangzhou province) and Nanjing and Yangzhou (East Jiangsu province).

Chinese companies and institutions are also developing two other drugs against the new coronavirus.

The state pharmaceutical Sinopharm – responsible for two vaccines against COVID-19 which are being used in several countries – is investigating a therapy based on the plasma of recovered patients and whose clinical trials will soon begin in the United Arab Emirates.

Meanwhile, the biotechnology company Kintor is working on a third formula that is also in the testing phase.

China Since the beginning of the pandemic, it has accumulated 99,454 infections -83 of them notified this Thursday- and 4,636 deaths from covid-19, according to data from the National Health Commission.

The Asian country for the moment rules out living with the virus and maintains a “zero tolerance” policy that entails a strict border closure and the application of harsh containment measures and mobility restrictions every time outbreaks are detected in its territory.