Abstract
The rapid evolution of SARS-CoV-2 has led to a severe attrition of the pool of monoclonal antibodies still available for COVID-19 prophylaxis or treatment. Omicron subvariants notably escape most antibodies developed so far, with Bebtelovimab last amongst clinically approved therapeutic antibodies to display still good activity against all of them including the currently dominant BA.4/BA.5. We recently described P2G3, a broadly active SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibody, which targets a region of Spike partly overlapping with the site recognized by Bebtelovimab. Here, we reveal that P2G3 efficiently neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 omicron subvariants including BA.4/BA.5. We further demonstrate that P2G3 neutralizes Omicron BA.2 and BA.4 mutants escaping Bebtelovimab blockade, whereas the converse is not true.
Funding EU COVICIS program; private foundation advised by CARIGEST SA.
Competing Interest Statement
C.F., G.P., P.T. and D.T. are co-inventors on a patent application that encompassesthe antibodies and data described in this manuscript (EP 22153464.7 and PCT/IB2022/050731). D.T. and G.P. are among the founders of and own equity in Aerium Therapeutics, which has rights to and is pursuing the development of the antibodies described in the publication, and has Sponsored Research Agreements with the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) and the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). The other authors declare no competing interests.