Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Regeneron Says Covid Antibody Drug Also Effective As Preventive
CNBC: Covid: Regeneron To Request FDA Clearance For Antibody Drug As Preventative Treatment
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals said Monday it will ask the Food and Drug Administration to allow its Covid-19 antibody therapy to be used as a preventative treatment. The therapy, which was given to former President Donald Trump shortly after he was diagnosed with Covid-19 last year, has already been authorized by the FDA to treat adults with mild-to-moderate Covid-19 and pediatric patients at least 12 years of age who have tested positive for the virus and are at high risk of severe disease. (Lovelace Jr., 4/12)
Stat: Regeneron Says Its Antibody Cocktail Injection Prevents Covid
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals said Monday that a single shot of its monoclonal antibody cocktail reduced the risk that volunteers exposed to Covid-19 would develop the disease by 81%. The study enrolled 1,500 healthy volunteers, each of whom shared a home with someone who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, and randomized them to receive a single dose of its antibody treatment, given subcutaneously, or placebo. After 29 days, 11 patients in the treatment group developed Covid-19 compared to 59 on placebo. (Herper, 4/12)
In other news about covid treatments —
The Washington Post: NIH Trial May Settle Debate Over Ivermectin As A Covid-19 Treatment
The requests were strange: Customers flocking to a Nevada feed store were asking for an animal deworming drug that they said worked for covid-19. “‘No, that’s not for you,’” Makenna LaFond, who works at Sierra Feed and Saddlery in Reno, recalled saying. “‘That’s for a 1,100-pound horse.’ Then, they would buy, like, six tubes of it.” LaFond said requests for the paste decreased late last year after she aired her concerns during a local television interview. But elsewhere, interest in ivermectin is running high, despite insufficient evidence that it works as a treatment for covid-19 and the sometimes dangerous consequences when people take the animal version. The Food and Drug Administration said at least three people were hospitalized in February after taking the veterinary formulation. It warned that high doses can cause allergic reactions, seizures, liver injury and even death. (McGinley, 4/8)
ScienceDaily: Using Genetics, Researchers Identify Potential Drugs For Early Treatment Of COVID-19
A new study using human genetics suggests researchers should prioritize clinical trials of drugs that target two proteins to manage COVID-19 in its early stages. The findings appeared online in the journal Nature Medicine in March 2021. Based on their analyses, the researchers are calling for prioritizing clinical trials of drugs targeting the proteins IFNAR2 and ACE2. The goal is to identify existing drugs, either FDA-approved or in clinical development for other conditions, that can be repurposed for the early management of COVID-19. Doing so, they say, will help keep people with the virus from being hospitalized. (4/9)
