Antibody drug may be less effective against omicron, Regeneron says

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Regeneron's COVID-19 antibody treatment may be less effective against the omicron coronavirus variant, the drugmaker said Nov. 30. 

The preliminary finding means some antibody therapies on the market may need to be tweaked if omicron becomes widespread, according to The Wall Street Journal..

Past computer modeling and laboratory research involving several mutations present in omicron show that there may be reduced neutralization activity against the variant, Regeneron said. The drugmaker said it expects to have a better sense of exactly how omicron affects the antibody therapy within a few weeks, after further research using omicron's full sequence is complete.

If testing confirms that the antibody therapy is less effective, Regeneron said it's already been testing other antibody drug candidates, some of which "may have the potential to retain activity against the omicron variant." The company plans to share more data from these analyses in the next month.

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