On Thursday, February 24, health authorities announced that just over 35,000 patients had obtained permission to receive one of the four anti-Covid treatments approved in France in parallel with the vaccination campaigns.

“Currently in France, four early access therapies are under the care of people at acute risk of developing COVID-19: Xevudy, Paxlovid, Ronapreve and Evusheld”in a press release from the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines (ANSM).

In total, more than 16,000 requests to treat patients […] Accepted to Ronapreve since Early Access, over 14,000 (vs) Evusheld’Agency, in detail.

For both treatments […] Xevudy and Paxlovid, which are licensed for Early Access in early 2022 and retain neutralization activity against the Omicron variant, 4,257 and 1,500 applications have been approved for use respectively”It continued, announcing that it would update this report regularly.

Treatments intended mainly for people with immunodeficiency

These treatments, which are synthetic antibodies with the exception of Pfizer’s Baxiloid pills, specifically target immunocompromised people, who are more likely to contract a serious form even when they have been vaccinated.

For one, Evusheld from AstraZeneca, it is used in place of a vaccination, and is considered ineffective for some patients. Others are given as curative treatments to prevent progression to a serious form.

Roche’s Ronapreve case is also specific: it is only approved against the Delta variant, now so much in the minority compared to Omicron against which this treatment appears to be ineffective.