On Dec. 22, Caroline Davis of Nashville became the first patient at Vanderbilt University Medical Center to receive injections of a new antibody combination to protect her from COVID-19.

Biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca has requested emergency use authorization (EUA) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a long-acting antibody combination originally developed at Vanderbilt University Medical Center to protect against COVID-19.

A monoclonal antibody cocktail against the COVID-19 virus discovered at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and developed by AstraZeneca reduced the risk of symptoms in a study of immunocompromised and chronically ill adults later exposed to the virus by 77%, the company announced today.

A monoclonal antibody “cocktail” developed at Vanderbilt University Medical Center to neutralize the COVID-19 virus is effective against all known strains, or variants, of the virus, according to a report published today in the journal Nature Medicine.

Based on positive results in preclinical studies reported today, potently neutralizing antibodies identified by researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center are showing promise as a potential therapy for preventing and treating COVID-19.

After evaluating the ability of more than 1,500 monoclonal antibodies to bind and neutralize the COVID-19 virus, SARS-CoV-2, in the laboratory, AstraZeneca signed an exclusive license to six candidate antibodies in Vanderbilt’s portfolio.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the global biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca have joined forces to identify candidates for antibody-based treatments that could protect people exposed to the 2019 novel coronavirus disease, COVID-19.