EMA gives green light for AstraZeneca Covid medicine

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) advised member states to approve AstraZeneca's coronavirus medicine. Adults and children over 12 years old can then receive the medication, known as Evusheld or AZD7442, with two injections containing the active substance.

Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca previously stated that the drug reduces the risk of coronavirus symptoms or death from Covid-19, both when taken preventively and within three days of developing symptoms. A study showed that Evusheld could lower the risk of Covid-19 by 77 percent, according to the pharmaceutical. The EMA assessed this data before authorizing the product.

The product is safe to use, the EMA concluded. The side effects are generally mild. However, research into Evusheld was done before the Omicron variant of the coronavirus became dominant. Several studies in the laboratory show that the drug is less effective against this variant, according to the EMA. That is why the medicines agency is looking at whether the dose may need to be adjusted.

Evusheld consists of two monoclonal antibodies - antibodies counterfeited in the laboratory based on samples from recovering coronavirus patients. The antibodies attach to the spike proteins of the coronavirus, which makes the virus incapable of entering cells to multiply and thus unable to cause the Covid-19 disease.