• 23 Jun 2021
• Admin
• News Article

GSK And Vir Biotechnology Announce Continuing Progress Of The COMET Clinical Development Programme For Sotrovimab

GlaxoSmithKline plc and Vir Biotechnology, Inc. today announced final, confirmatory results from the Phase 3 COMET-ICE (COVID-19 Monoclonal antibody Efficacy Trial - Intent to Care Early) trial demonstrating that sotrovimab, an investigational SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibody, significantly reduced the risk of hospitalisation or death among high-risk adult outpatients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19. Additionally, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) updated its COVID-19 treatment guidelines to recommend sotrovimab for non-hospitalised patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 who are at high risk of clinical progression and noted that sotrovimab appears to retain activity against current variants of concern and interest. The primary efficacy analysis of all 1,057 patients in the COMET-ICE trial demonstrated a 79% reduction (adjusted relative risk reduction) (p<0.001) in hospitalisation for more than 24 hours or death due to any cause, by Day 29 compared to placebo, meeting the primary endpoint of the trial. The number of patients in the trial who were hospitalised for >24 hours for acute management of any illness or death from any cause at Day 29 was six patients in the sotrovimab arm (1%), versus 30 patients in the placebo arm (6%). In the sotrovimab arm, it is possible that half of those patients who were hospitalised were for reasons other than progression of COVID-19 (e.g., small bowel obstruction, lung cancer and diabetic foot ulcer); this was not the case for patients in the placebo arm. In the safety analysis, 1,037 participants were followed through at least 29 days. The most common adverse events observed in the sotrovimab treatment group in COMET-ICE were rash (1%) and diarrhoea (2%), all of which were Grade 1 (mild) or Grade 2 (moderate). No other treatment-emergent adverse events were reported at a higher rate with sotrovimab compared to placebo. The companies plan to submit the full COMET-ICE data set to a peer-reviewed journal for publication. Christopher Corsico, Senior Vice President, Development, GSK, said: "Effective medicines to treat those who become infected with SARS-CoV-2 remain a critical part of the solution to this pandemic. We are working diligently to increase access to sotrovimab in the U.S. and across the globe, including evaluating the potential to simplify administration with an intramuscular formulation." George Scangos, PhD, chief executive officer of Vir, said: "We are pleased that the profound interim efficacy from the COMET-ICE trial has now been validated by the full study population. These results, combined with the growing number of pending global authorizations, as well as the recent recommendation by the NIH COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel, support our confidence in the potential role of sotrovimab in the fight against this pandemic." Updated NIH Guidelines Recommend Sotrovimab The NIH recently updated its guidelines regarding the emergency use authorisations of anti-SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of COVID-19 in the U.S. to recommend the use of sotrovimab for non-hospitalised patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 who are at high risk of clinical progression. The guidelines note that the target binding site of sotrovimab is in a region of the virus that does not overlap with the binding site location of key mutations in current variants of concern and interest. These guidelines were based upon an interim analysis of 583 patients in the COMET-ICE trial, which was stopped early in March 2020 by an independent data monitoring committee because interim results demonstrated evidence of sotrovimab’s clinical efficacy. The interim study results demonstrated an 85% (p=0.002) reduction in hospitalisation for more than 24 hours or death in those receiving sotrovimab compared to placebo, the primary endpoint of the trial. These data have informed global regulatory reviews to date, including the positive scientific opinion issued by the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) Committee for Human Medicinal Products (CHMP) under Article 5(3) of Regulation 726/2004, as well as the Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) granted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).