On Thursday, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc said they have begun human trials for a preliminary antibody cocktail as a treatment for COVID-19.
The trial design is adaptive, quickly goes from a dozen recipients to gradually thousands, Chief Scientific Officer George Yancopoulos told Reuters.
“If it goes perfectly well, within a week or two we will move to the second phase. Within a month or so of that, we will have clear data that this is working or not. By the end of summer, we could have sufficient data for broad utilisation.”
Some patients will be given the dual antibody REGN-COV2 while others will receive a placebo. The participants will be recruited among patients admitted to hospitals, and in patients who have symptoms but not sick enough to be admitted.
Regeneron will also test the cocktail to see if it works as a prophylactic among healthcare workers and frontline workers who have a high risk of exposure and also among uninfected people who are in close vicinity of someone who tested positive for the virus.
Created out of the body's immune system, antibodies are proteins that identify, connect, and counterbalance an entering virus. The cocktail includes antibodies created by Regeneron, and another taken from people who have recovered from COVID-19.
A single intravenous infusion of REGN-COV2 will be given to the trial patients.
The treatment will still be of use even after a COVID-19 vaccine is rolled out in the market. This is because the elderly and people with low immune systems are not likely to respond well to the vaccines.
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