NEW preclinical authentic 'live' virus data from Washington University School of Medicine demonstrated that AstraZeneca's AZD7442 (tixagevimab co-packaged with cilgavimab) retained potent neutralizing activity against the emerging and highly transmissible Omicron SARS-CoV-2 BA.2 subvariant.1. The data also showed that AZD7442 retained activity against Omicron BA.1 and BA.1.1.1.

The study used a transgenic mouse model to evaluate AZD7442 in pre-exposure prophylaxis (prevention) of Covid-19; similar to how AZD7442 was used in the clinic. These were the first in vivo data that evaluated the efficacy of AZD7442 against the Omicron variants versus previous in vitro neutralising activity assays in cultured cells.