With input from Dr Monica Vasudev

1. Coronavirus variant first detected in Brazil, termed P.1, is resistant to three of the four antibody treatments that have emergency use authorization in the United States.
2. In experiments, the P.1 variant was exposed to various monoclonal antibodies, including the four that are under use to treat COVID-19 patients in the U.S., including imdevimab and casirivimab from Regneron Pharmaceuticals, and bamlanivimab and etesevimab from Eli Lilly and Co.
3. Only imdevimab was found to retain any potency.
4. The neutralizing ability of the other three were shown to be considerably or completely abolished in a peer reviewed report available on bioRxiv and provisionally accepted by the journal Cell Host & Microbe.
5. P.1 variant was also exposed to plasma from COVID-19 survivors and blood from Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccine recipients. When compared with their effects against the original version of the virus, the plasma and vaccine-induced antibodies appeared to be less effective at neutralizing the variant. In previous studies, they were found to be even less effective against the South Africa variant - B.1.351.
6. TheBrazil variant may not pose as big a threat of reinfection or diminished vaccine protection as the South Africa variant. (Reuters)

Dr KK Aggarwal

President CMAAO, HCFI and Past National President IMA