Exactly a year on from the discovery that a cheap steroid drug prevented Covid deaths, researchers say they have found another life-saving therapy. I

Another life-saving Covid treatment found

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2021-06-16 07:30:10

Exactly a year on from the discovery that a cheap steroid drug prevented Covid deaths, researchers say they have found another life-saving therapy.

It is expensive - a potent intravenous infusion of antibodies to neutralise the virus, rather than dampen the body's inflammatory response to it.

But only those who have not already made any antibodies of their own to fight the virus should be given the treatment, which costs between £1,000 and £2,000.

Kimberley Featherstone, 37, who received the treatment during the trial, said: "I feel very lucky that the trial was up and running by the time I was taken to hospital with Covid-19 and I was able to receive this ground-breaking treatment.

Joint chief investigator Sir Marin Landray said: "Giving them this combination of two antibodies by an intravenous infusion then actually reduces their chances of dying by a fifth.

"What we found is now here we can use an antiviral treatment, in this case these antibodies, in patients who have got a one in three chance of dying untreated and we can reduce that risk for them."