A potential new coronavirus antibody treatment made by a British pharmaceutical giant based in Brentford has moved into late stage trials.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) said its treatment Vir-7831 could be rolled out by next year if proven to be effective and safe.

The drug uses antibodies - proteins found in people who have survived covid-19 - that have been genetically modified in a lab.

The substances are then injected into patients in the early stages of their illness.

This latest development is significant because, currently, there are no drugs on the market that prevent people from falling severely unwell with the disease.

An early trial on 20 patients in the US suggested the new antibody medicine was safe and did not cause any adverse health effects.

The study will now expand across North America, South America and Europe and aim to recruit nearly 1,500 volunteers to see if the drug can prevent serious illness.

Antibodies are proteins the immune system makes when someone becomes infected with a virus, such as the pathogen that causes covid-19.

But it can take weeks for them to form after being infected or having a vaccine, which is often too late as the virus has already multiplied in the body.

For some people - particularly the elderly and those with weakened immune systems - their bodies struggle to create enough antibodies to fight the disease.

Dr Hal Barron, chief scientific officer and president of research and design at GSK, said: "Given the urgent patient need, I am very pleased that we have progressed Vir-7831 from pre-clinical studies to a phase three trial in only six months since announcing our collaboration with Vir.

"This neutralising antibody's high barrier to resistance, notable effector function, and enhanced delivery into the lung, suggest it has best-in-class potential in the fight against this global pandemic."