Florida and Texas are opening free monoclonal antibody treatment centers to combat the surge of the delta variant of the coronavirus, CNBC reported Aug. 19.
The states are hoping that treating COVID-19 patients early with antibody drugs will keep them out of hospitals and prevent more deaths.
Texas is setting up nine antibody drug infusion centers, Gov. Greg Abbott said Aug. 13, according to CNBC, and Florida opened its fifth site Aug. 18.
Monoclonal antibody drugs mimic antibodies the immune system naturally produces to fight COVID-19. They have been shown to sharply reduce hospitalization and deaths from the virus when given early in the course of the disease. The White House has encouraged providers to boost use of the drugs as the delta variant now accounts for 98.8 percent of COVID-19 cases in the U.S, according to The Washington Post.
"What puts you in the hospital is the inflammation. People get inflammation in their lungs," Arturo Casadevall, MD, PhD, chair of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, told CNBC. "So what these antibodies do is, if you give them to a patient early, they will neutralize the virus."
But monoclonal antibody drugs haven't been used much in the pandemic because they're hard to administer, as they have to be injected directly into a patient's vein, which takes specialized medical staff.
The FDA granted emergency use authorization to Regeneron's COVID-19 antibody drug last November. GlaxoSmithKline received FDA authorization for its antibody drug developed with Vir Biotechnology in May, saying it reduced hospitalization and death in high-risk patients by about 85 percent.
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