Glaxo and Vir Biotechnology stocks climbed in premarket trading

Glaxo and Vir Biotechnology stocks climbed in premarket trading as Glaxo covid antibody drug effective on Omicron, early tests showed.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s Covid-19 antibody treatment looks to be effective against the new omicron variant in early testing, according to the company.

Lab tests of the mutations found in the variant showed the drug is still active against the virus, Glaxo said in a statement Thursday. The drugmaker is now conducting in vitro testing to confirm the response against a combination of all the omicron mutations and plans to give an update by year-end.

Glaxo’s comments on the drug known as sotrovimab come amid uncertainty about how much omicron erodes the defenses of existing medicines and vaccines. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. earlier this week said it was conducting further testing after early evidence suggested that its own antibody may be less effective.

“Sotrovimab was deliberately designed with a mutating virus in mind,” said George Scangos, chief executive officer of co-developer Vir Biotechnology Inc. “This hypothesis has borne out again and again.”

The U.K. regulator also authorized for drug for use Thursday, after it reduced the risk of hospitalization and death in people with mild to moderate Covid-19 in trials.