What happened
Shares of Vir Biotechnology (VIR -1.11%) jumped 12% on Wednesday after the company shared promising data for its COVID-19 antibody treatment.
So what
Vir said that sotrovimab, the investigational monoclonal antibody treatment it developed with healthcare giant GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK), retained its effectiveness against the worrisome omicron variant in a preclinical study.
The news comes at a time when the ability of existing COVID-19 vaccines to ward off infection has waned as omicron has spread rapidly across the world.
Investors bid up Vir Biotechnology's stock price on Wednesday. Image source: Getty Images.
The highly mutated virus strain has numerous changes to its spike protein, which health officials feared would make it more difficult to treat with available monoclonal antibody therapeutics. However, Vir's and GlaxoSmithKline's sotrovimab binds to a part of the virus that is relatively unchanged from prior strains.
"These results, together with new data from external sources, continue to validate our approach of targeting a highly conserved region of the spike protein," Vir Chief Scientific Officer Herbert Virgin said in a statement. "We believe this strategy is responsible for sotrovimab's ability to maintain activity against all tested variants of concern and interest, including omicron."
Now what
Sotrovimab is authorized for emergency use in the U.S. and several international markets. Vir and GlaxoSmithKline are working with regulators to bring the monoclonal antibody treatment to more countries in 2022.
Moreover, the companies believe that the knowledge they've obtained from their collaboration will bolster their long-term research and development efforts. "We look forward to applying these learnings to our ongoing efforts to address both current and future pandemics," Virgin said.
