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Drugmakers are rushing to develop a new generation of Covid-19 drugs to make them easier to administer to patients and to stay ahead of viral mutations that could make some current drugs less effective.
Drugs, called monoclonal antibodies, are versions of antibodies designed in the lab that mimic the body’s natural immune response to viruses. They are considered to be among the most promising for preventing infected patients from developing severe or fatal symptoms and preventing them from going to the hospital. After catching Covid-19, President Trump was treated with one of the drugs and credited with his speedy recovery. Doctors say drugs will continue to be important treatments for the foreseeable future as vaccines become more widely available.
When the first generation of the drugs were cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in November to treat patients not yet sick enough to be hospitalized, public health officials feared there wasn’t enough for everything. the world. But these concerns have given way to frustration that the drugs will not be used due to the difficulties of administering the drugs, which may require about an hour of preparation before the patient arrives, an infusion of an hour and a half. hour monitoring to ensure that patients do not suffer from allergic reactions.
To reduce the logistical burden and help patients get treated sooner, researchers are working on new antibody drugs that can be given with quick injections into the arm, similar to flu shots. They would allow patients to be treated quickly after being diagnosed with Covid-19, said Michel C. Nussenzweig, immunologist and professor at Rockefeller University in New York.
“It changes everything because you can go get the CVS vaccine and go get the vaccine at your doctor,” said Dr Nussenzweig, whose lab developed a combination of antibodies that recently began the first safety studies of. phase 1. “Intravenous administration is a headache. It’s just a heavy thing to do.
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