US approves COVID antibody therapy given to Trump

The US Food and Drug Administration has issued emergency authorization for the use of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc’s coronavirus antibody therapy - an experimental treatment given to President Donald Trump that he said helped cure him of the disease.

The FDA said Saturday that the therapy should be administered to patients with mild to moderate symptoms who are at high risk of progressing to severe COVID-19. This includes those who are 65 years of age or older or who have certain chronic medical conditions.

The treatment is part of a class of drugs known as monoclonal antibodies, which are manufactured copies of antibodies created by the human body to fight infections.

Regeneron’s REGEN-COV2 “antibody cocktail” is designed so that the two antibodies seek out and bind to the coronavirus’ spike protein to prevent it from entering healthy human cells.

The company said it expects to have doses of treatment ready for about 80,000 patients by the end of this month, followed by enough for half a million patients by the end of January.