Monoclonal Antibody Therapy May Cut COVID-19 Hospitalizations

TUESDAY, Aug. 31, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Casirivimab-imdevimab treatment is associated with a reduced rate of hospitalization for high-risk patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19, according to a study published online Aug. 30 in EClinicalMedicine.

Raymund R. Razonable, M.D., from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort study involving 696 patients who received casirivimab-imdevimab between Dec. 4, 2020, and April 9, 2021, and a propensity-matched cohort of 696 untreated patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19. The primary outcome was the rate of hospitalization at days 14, 21, and 28 after infusion.

High-risk characteristics in the cohort included hypertension, body mass index ≥35 kg/m², diabetes mellitus, chronic lung disease, chronic renal disease, congestive heart failure, and compromised immune function (52.4, 31.0, 24.6, 22.1, 11.4, 6.6, and 6.7 percent, respectively). The researchers found that patients who received casirivimab-imdevimab had significantly lower all-cause hospitalization rates at days 14, 21, and 28 compared with propensity-matched untreated controls (absolute differences, 2.0, 2.9, and 3.2 percent, respectively).

“This real-world study suggests that when patients who are at high risk due to a range of comorbidities contract a mild or moderate case of COVID-19, this combination of monoclonal injections gives them a chance of a nonhospitalized recovery,” Razonable said in a statement. “In other words, they recover safely at home.”

Several authors disclosed financial ties to the biopharmaceutical and health technology industries.

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