Health

Drug Company Will Send Out 300,000 Doses Of The COVID-19 Antibody Treatment Trump Took By January, CEO Says

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Matthew Wearp Contributor
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Drug company Regeneron will supply 300,000 doses of their newly approved COVID-19 treatment, the company’s CEO, Dr. Leonard Schleifer, told CNBC on Monday.

The Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency authorization for the antibody treatment in a news release on Saturday saying that the authorization would provide another tool to combat the pandemic.

The experimental treatment was given to President Donald Trump in October after he contracted COVID-19. Trump heralded the treatment, crediting it with his rapid recovery and saying that he felt it was a cure. (RELATED: WHO Advises Against Remdesivir, The Drug Used To Treat Trump)

Regeneron has 80,000 doses immediately ready for distribution, Schleifer told CNBC, and the federal government will be in charge of allotting the doses to the states in “proportion to the need and amount of COVID,” he said.

The breakthrough comes as part of the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed which in July saw the U.S. government sign a $450 million contract with Regeneron for its COVID-19 treatment, according to Reuters.

REGN-COV2 double antibody cocktail Bernard Chantal/Shutterstock

REGN-COV2 double antibody cocktail (Bernard Chantal/Shutterstock)

The company will be able to supply 100,000 doses every month after January, Schleifer told CNBC, and are in the process of conducting experiments in order to determine if the dosage can be cut in half. This could double the number of available doses every month if proven effective, he stated.

“I’m hopeful that will really bring down the number of cases and that those people that still get it, because they didn’t either respond to the vaccine, or they didn’t access the vaccine or didn’t want the vaccine, that there will be this monoclonal cocktail of ours available for treatment,” Schleifer told CNBC. (RELATED: US Could Reach Herd Immunity By May 2021 If 70% Of Americans Get The Vaccine, Top Doctor Says)

Schleifer also told CNBC that Regeneron is currently searching for a way to make the process of administering the treatment easier and more accessible for those who have contracted the virus, including a possible way to administer the drug at the person’s home.

“When used to treat COVID-19 for the authorized population, the known and potential benefits of these antibodies outweigh the known and potential risks,” the Food and Drug Administration stated in their news release on Saturday.

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