AstraZeneca Egypt announced the arrival of the first batch of 15,000 doses of AstraZeneca’s ‘Evusheld’ anti-coronavirus drug, which has a formula that includes two long-acting antibodies.
The arrival of the first batch of doses comes after the drug obtained an emergency
use authorisation from the Egyptian Drug Authority (EDA) on 16 January for the purposes of treating pre-exposure prophylaxis COVID-19 in patients over 12 years of age and weighing more than 40 kg.
More doses are expected to arrive within the coming weeks, with AstraZeneca announcing that it signed a supply agreement with Egypt for the delivery of 50,000 doses in 2022.
Egypt is the first African country and the fourth state in the world to receive the drug, according to AstraZeneca.
The drug targets groups that suffer from moderate to severe immune weakness as a result of a health condition or for taking immunosuppressive drugs.
Hossam Abdel Ghaffar, the Official Spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Population, said that the directives of the political leadership were the main driver that made Egypt one of the first countries in the world to receive doses of the innovative Evusheld to protect the most vulnerable groups.
He added that the ministry’s cooperation with AstraZeneca has played a pivotal role in the country’s efforts to address the pandemic, highlighting the company’s distribution of its vaccines to aid the country’s vaccination campaign, which started in January 2021.
About two percent of the world’s population suffers from increased risks posed by the body’s inability to generate an adequate immune response to vaccination due to taking medication for diseases such as multiple sclerosis and arthritis.
Emerging evidence indicates the importance of protecting vulnerable populations from infection with COVID-19 to prevent the development of the virus, as this is an important factor behind the emergence of mutations and variants to the disease.
