AstraZeneca Covid drug gets EU approval

The European Union has given marketing approval to AstraZeneca's Evusheld coronavirus medicine for adults and children over 12 years old, the company said on Monday.

AstraZeneca said the drug, also called AZD7442 reduced the risk of coronavirus symptoms or death from Covid-19, both when taken preventively and within three days of developing symptoms.

A study showed Evusheld, which is administered via two injections, could lower the risk of Covid-19 by 77%, it added.

"Increasing Covid-19 cases, driven by the highly-transmissible BA.2 subvariant, and withdrawal of several pandemic public health measures make it important to protect vulnerable populations, such as the immunocompromised, from infection, said Christoph Spinner, MD, Consulting Physician Infectious Diseases and Pandemic Officer at the University Hospital Rechts der Isar and adjunct teaching professor at the Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany.

“The authorisation of Evusheld for a broad population will allow health authorities in the EU to identify the populations who are most at-risk and need additional protection."

Approval comes amid a rising wave of cases globally, and after authorities in Shanghai said they would start a phased lockdown to curb an Omicron-fuelled Covid-19 outbreak that has hit China with its highest caseloads since the early days of the pandemic.

China’s biggest city, with a population of 25 million people, will lock down its eastern half from Monday until Friday, officials said, followed by a similar lockdown of its western side beginning on April 1.