Benzinga | Jul 28, 2021 06:26AM EDT

GSK And Vir Biotechnology Announce Joint Procurement Agreement With European Commission For Sotrovimab COVID-19 Treatment To Supply Up To 220K Doses

GlaxoSmithKline plc (NYSE:GSK) and Vir Biotechnology, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIR) today announced they have signed a Joint Procurement Agreement with the European Commission to supply up to 220,000 doses of sotrovimab, an investigational single dose SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibody for the treatment of adults and adolescents (aged 12 years and over and weighing at least 40 kg) with COVID-19 who do not require oxygen supplementation and who are at risk of progressing to severe COVID-19. The Joint Procurement Agreement enables participating European Union (EU) Member States to quickly purchase sotrovimab, following local emergency authorization or authorization at the EU level, to treat high-risk patients with COVID-19 who may benefit from early treatment with sotrovimab.

This action follows the positive scientific opinion issued by the European Medicines Agency's (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP), under Article 5(3) of Regulation 726/2004, which can be considered by the national authorities in EU Member States when taking evidence-based decisions on the early use of the medicine prior to marketing authorization. Sotrovimab is included in the European Commission's portfolio of promising candidate therapies as part of its COVID-19 Therapeutics Strategy. In addition, the documentation to support the forthcoming marketing authorization application for sotrovimab is under rolling regulatory review with the EMA. In June, the companies announced confirmatory full results for the Phase 3 COMET-ICE trial, which resulted in a 79% reduction (adjusted relative risk reduction) (p<0.001) in hospitalizations for more than 24 hours or death due to any cause by Day 29 compared to placebo, meeting the primary endpoint of the trial.