Roche rolls out antibody Covid drug in India

Mumbai Roche India on Monday announced the rollout of its first batch of the antibody cocktail (Casirivimab and Imdevimab) against Coronavirus in India. The cocktail drug will be marketed by Cipla pan-India. The second batch of the cocktail jabs will be made available by mid-June. Together, they can potentially benefit 200,000 patients as each of the 100,000 packs that will be available in India offers treatment for two patients, the company said in a statement. The price for each patient dose a combined dose of 1200 mg (600 mg of Casirivimab and 600 mg of Imdevimab) will be Rs 59,750. The maximum retail price for the multi-dose pack (each pack can treat two patients) is Rs 119,500, the statement added.

The Casirivimab-Imdevimab injection is a cocktail of two monoclonal antibodies and was designed specifically to block infectivity of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. The monoclonal antibodies are produced by recombinant DNA technology. The antibody cocktail jab can be administered for the treatment of mild to moderate coronavirus disease in adults and children aged 12 years or older and weighing at least 40 kg, those who are at high risk of developing severe Covid-19 disease, and do not require oxygen, the company said.