Australians with COVID-19 who are at risk of hospitalisation will now have access to an additional antibody treatment, as the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) announced today it has granted provisional approval for sotrovimab to be used in Australia.

Earlier this month, the Australian Government secured an initial allocation of over 7,700 doses of the novel monoclonal antibody treatment sotrovimab and a first shipment is already in the country and ready to be deployed through the National Medical Stockpile from next week.

The sotrovimab treatment requires a single dose to be administered through an intravenous (IV) infusion in a health care facility and has been shown to reduce hospitalisation or death by 79 per cent in adults with mild to moderate COVID-19, who are at risk of developing severe COVID-19.