China's Brii says its COVID-19 antibody cocktail retains activity against Omicron

Brii Biosciences

13/12/2021 04:16

BEIJING, Dec 13 (Reuters) - China's Brii Biosciences
 2137.HK  said on Sunday lab studies showed that its COVID-19
antibody cocktail retained activity against the Omicron variant,
although one of the antibodies showed a substantial drop in
activity when tested alone. 
    Test details for the dual-antibody treatment, which last
week became the first approved COVID-19 antibody cocktail in
China, would not be available until publication in a scientific
journal, but results from three independent labs showed similar
pattern, Brii chief executive Hong Zhi said on Monday.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2ST15F
    Although no purchase order for the treatment has been
announced, the firm was able to secure manufacturing capacity of
1 million doses for 2022 and 2023 each, Hong said in an investor
call, adding it already has about 80,000 doses available in its
inventory.
    Hong said the firm hoped to receive stockpiling orders for
the antibody combination. "Those are very important for us as a
small company to really manage our cash flow at the same time
addressing a public pandemic."
    The firm, yet to disclose any in-house production capacity
for the drug, is partnering with WuXi Biologics  2269.HK  for
manufacturing.

 (Reporting by Roxanne Liu and Ryan Woo)
 ((hongkong.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com; （8610）6627-1277;
Reuters Messaging: roxanne.liu@thomsonreuters.com))