Competition for AstraZeneca antibody cocktail Evusheld in Australia

Australia recently granted provisional determination for AstraZeneca’s (LSE: AZN) COVID-19 monoclonal antibody (MAb) cocktail postexposure prophylaxis (PEP) therapy Evusheld (tixagevimab + cilgavimab / AZD7442).

On expected successful provisional approval and launch in early 2022, it faces competition with a crowded COVID-19 armory of MAb and oral anti-viral therapies, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

So far, Australia provisionally approved three treatments: Roche’s (ROG: SIX) casirivimab + imdevimab (Ronapreve) in October 2021 both as symptomatic therapy and PEP therapy, GlaxoSmithKline’s (LSE: GSK) sotrovimab (Xevudy) in August 2021 as symptomatic therapy in mild-to-moderate patient setting, and Gilead Sciences’ (Nasdaq: GILD) remdesivir (Veklury) in July 2020 as therapy for patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19 symptoms.