New Covid-19 antibody treatment an interesting opportunity for Biocon: Kiran Mazumdar Shaw

Biocon Biologics recently announced a new antibody to fight and prevent COVID-19. "I think vaccines have a very different role to play in controlling Covid, but I believe this will also have a very important role to play in getting the home situation to become safe," said Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Executive Chairperson, Biocon. Edited Excerpts:
What is unique about this molecule for the Covid drug?
I personally believe that this is now an endemic and Covid-19 needs both vaccines and treatments. I think treatments become extremely important because you can see the rising re-infections, the rising number of cases around the world because of variants, etc. I personally believe that unless we have treatments that are effective, we are not in a safe place. That is where we are coming from and we believe this is a very interesting opportunity for Biocon because it really allows us to expand into adjacent areas.

At what stage is the molecule currently at in terms of development and when will it be available for Indian patients? Furthermore, where else will you be marketing the product?
Of course, we cannot exactly share with you the various emerging markets where we have licenced this molecule, but suffice to say it is a very interesting group of emerging markets where we believe that this can become a very large opportunity for Biocon Biologics. The differentiation that we are looking at for this product is, firstly, it is something that can be done very easily in the outpatient setup. It is a single jab and it is an intramuscular jab. That is what differentiates it from all other treatments in the space. Moreover, it seems to be extremely efficacious against all the known variants to date. So, it is a very broad spectrum neutralising antibody, which is what makes it very interesting.

Do you have the capacity to make this product or will you need to setup a new facility altogether?
No, we believe we have the required capacity to produce this product and make a very good business out of it.

What stage is it currently at? Is it undergoing clinical trial and would you be doing any trials in India?
Right now, it is under phase-2, phase-3 clinical development. They have indicated to us that they expect to be able to submit in the first quarter of calendar year FY22 and hopefully get an EUA. So, it is quite short term in that sense for us to get this product to patients in India and other emerging markets.

There are already quite a few vaccines available today, how will this product make an impact?
I think vaccines have a very different role to play in controlling Covid, but I believe this will also have a very important role to play in getting the home situation to become safe. You can imagine that today you have a large number of breakthrough infections taking place with fully vaccinated people. This obviously allows you to take care of anyone who gets re-infected very rapidly. Secondly, they are also doing a prophylactic trial.

There are many immune-compromised and vulnerable population that may not be able to really generate the immune response that you need to generate against the vaccine and this is the kind of product that can also keep them safe and protect them. I think overall treatments have a very important role to play. We expect this product to be safe, protective, enduring for a certain period of time and more than anything else, I think it will be the most affordable antibody treatment in emerging markets.