AstraZeneca asks FDA to authorize COVID antibody treatment

By DANICA KIRKA and MATTHEW PERRONE
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca has asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to authorize the emergency use of an antibody treatment to prevent COVID-19. The company said Tuesday that the treatment would be the first long-acting antibody combination to receive an emergency use authorization for COVID-19 prevention. The FDA has authorized three other antibody drugs already. Two of them can be given after a possible COVID-19 exposure to try and head off symptoms. AstraZeneca’s drug would instead be given as a preventive measure in people who have increased vulnerability to the virus and whose immune systems don’t respond well to vaccines.