Effectiveness of the neutralizing antibody sotrovimab among high-risk patients with mild-to-moderate SARS-CoV-2 in Qatar
Dr Ahmed Zaqout, Muna A Almaslamani, Hiam Chemaitelly, Samar A Hashim, Ajithkumar Ittaman, Abeir Alimam, Fatma Rustom, Joanne Daghfal, Mohammed Abukhattab, Sawsan Almukdad, Anvar Hassan Kaleeckal, Ali Nizar Latif, Adeel A Butt, Roberto Bertollini, Abdullatif Al-Khal, Ali S Omrani, Laith J Abu-Raddad
International Journal of Infectious Diseases, doi:10.1016/j.ijid.2022.09.023
Objectives: To estimate the real-world effectiveness of sotrovimab against severe, critical, or fatal COVID-19 in Qatar at a time in which most SARS-CoV-2 incidences occurred due to the BA.2 Omicron subvariant. Methods: We conducted a matched case-control study among all individuals eligible for sotrovimab treatment per United States Food and Drug Administration guidelines in the resident population of Qatar. The odds of progression to severe forms of COVID-19 were compared in cases (treatment group) versus controls (eligible patients who opted not to receive the treatment). Subgroup analyses were conducted. Results: A total of 3364 individuals were eligible for sotrovimab treatment during the study period, of whom 519 individuals received the treatment, whereas the remaining 2845 constituted the controls. The adjusted odds ratio of disease progression to severe, critical, or fatal COVID-19 comparing the treatment group to the control group was 2.67 (95% confidence interval 0.60-11.91). In the analysis including only the subgroup of patients at higher risk of severe forms of COVID-19, the adjusted odds ratio was 0.65 (95% confidence interval 0.17-2.48). Conclusion: There was no evidence for a protective effect of sotrovimab in reducing COVID-19 severity in a setting dominated by the BA.2 subvariant.
Funding The authors are grateful for institutional salary support from Hamad Medical Corporation, the Ministry of Public Health, and the Biomedical Research Program and the Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Biomathematics Research Core, both at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar. The authors are also grateful to the Qatar Genome Programme and Qatar University Biomedical Research Center for institutional support for the reagents needed for the viral genome sequencing. The funders of the study had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, or writing of the article. Statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the authors.
Ethical approval The Hamad Medical Corporation and Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar Institutional Review Boards approved this retrospective study with a waiver of informed consent. The research was performed in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations.
Author contributions AZ, MAA, and ASO co-designed the study, led the database development, and co-wrote the manuscript. HC co-designed the study, performed the statistical analyses, and co-wrote the first draft of the article. LJA co-designed the study, led the statistical analyses, and co-wrote the first draft of the article. All authors contributed to data collection and acquisition, database development, discussion and interpretation of the results, and the writing of the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Declaration of..
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