Israel to offer AstraZeneca's Evusheld to immunocompromised people

[February 15, 2022]  JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel will start offering AstraZeneca's antibody cocktail Evusheld, which is used to prevent COVID-19, to people with compromised immune systems who did not get a sufficient antibody boost from vaccines.

Evusheld has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and has proven to be 83% effective in preventing serious illness and death from COVID-19, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

It is not a treatment for those already sick or a prevention for those already exposed to the virus, it said.

Evusheld will be made available for people 12 and older who weigh more than 40 kg (88 lb), according to a Health Ministry statement.

It said Evusheld will "be given regardless of past recovery from COVID-19 or receiving previous coronavirus vaccine doses, provided that two weeks have passed since getting the vaccine."

(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Michael Urquhart)

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