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These measures come as demand for monoclonal antibodies has increased as cases have increased due to the spread of the Delta variant and low vaccination rates in parts of the country.
Monoclonal antibodies are proteins of the immune system designed in the laboratory that trigger an immune response against infection. The US Department of Health and Human Services says that as of September 10, 2.17 million doses of monoclonal antibodies have been shipped to all sites, and 938,000 doses have been used since December. About 43% of the doses distributed had been used by September 3.
A spokesperson for HHS said seven states accounted for 70% of therapy orders. These seven states are Florida, Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana.
“Given this reality, we must work to ensure that our supply of these life-saving therapies remains available to all states and territories, not just some,” the HHS spokesperson said.
Distribution, which is similar to a system used earlier this year, will fall to HHS, which will allocate products to states and territories on a weekly basis, rather than administrative sites ordering them directly.
“The HHS will determine how much product each state and territory receives each week. State and territory health departments will then identify which sites will receive the product and how much, ”the spokesperson said. “This system will help maintain equitable distribution, both geographically and temporally, across the country – providing states and territories with a consistent and evenly distributed supply over the coming weeks.”
US buys more antibody treatments
Regeneron announced on Tuesday that the Biden administration had contracted with the company for 1.4 million additional doses of its Covid-19 treatment, bringing the total to 3 million doses purchased by the United States.
The treatment is a cocktail of two monoclonal antibodies, urgently authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration to reduce the risk of hospitalization and death in certain Covid-19 patients and close contacts of infected people.
Regeneron said it will deliver the additional doses by the end of January 2022 and start supplying them this month, the company said in a statement. Regeneron said it will provide the treatment for $ 2,100 per dose to the government, which will continue to provide it to patients free of charge. The company received $ 2.94 billion for the additional doses, the US Department of Defense (DOD) said in a statement.
Eli Lilly and Company announced on Wednesday that the U.S. government had purchased 388,000 doses of its Covid-19 monoclonal antibody treatment etesevimab to supplement previously purchased doses of its bamlanivimab monoclonal antibody.
About 200,000 doses are expected to ship in the third quarter of 2021, with the rest to be shipped in the fourth quarter, the company said.
Shipments of Eli Lilly’s treatments had previously been halted because they were not working against beta and gamma coronavirus variants, but distribution resumed earlier this month as demand for the antibody treatment increased. There is some evidence that bamlanivimab and etesevimab are effective together against the dominant variant of the Delta coronavirus in the United States.
“The recent increase in Covid-19 cases has caused a substantial increase in the use of monoclonal antibody drugs, especially in areas of the country with low vaccination rates,” Dr Daniel Skovronsky, Scientific Director and Lilly Medical and president of Lilly Research Laboratories, said in a statement. “Lilly has developed bamlanivimab and etesevimab for administration together, in anticipation of variants such as the highly contagious Delta variant, which currently accounts for over 98% of all identified Covid-19 cases in the United States.”
CNN’s Jamie Gumbrecht contributed to this report.
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