AstraZeneca Starts Clinical Trial Testing Its COVID-19 Treatment Antibody Cocktail

All eyes are on AstraZeneca's (NYSE: AZN) coronavirus vaccine AZD1222, which is in late-stage testing and could be on the market in October.

But the U.K.-based pharma is still hedging its bets, launching a phase 1 clinical trial for AZD7442, a treatment for COVID-19.

AZD7442 is a mixture of two antibodies that were isolated from patients infected with SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. AZD7442 is manufactured in a plant, unlike convalescent plasma that received an emergency use authorization on Sunday, which is collected from plasma of recovered patients. The purity of AZD7442 will increase the consistency of the product, but there are no guarantees the two antibodies AstraZeneca picked will block the virus in patients.

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Source Fool.com