AstraZeneca has requested the US Food and Drug Administration to grant emergency use authorisation for its new treatment to prevent Covid-19, Reuters quotes the British drugmaker as saying.

The company has included data from a late-stage trial of over 5,000 participants that showed the drug reduced the risk of people developing any Covid-19 symptoms by 77 per cent.

The treatment, an antibody therapy called AZD7442, could help protect people who may not have a strong enough immune response to Covid-19 vaccines, AstraZeneca said.