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Demand for monoclonal antibodies has skyrocketed – a treatment to reduce the severity of symptoms of Covid-19 – especially among states with a larger population of Americans hesitant to vaccinate, as the United States continues to struggle against the highly contagious Delta variant in areas with lagging vaccination rates.
The demand for treatment has increased twenty-fold in recent weeks due to the sharp increase in new cases accelerated by the Delta variant and delayed vaccination rates, and due to increased awareness of the treatment. But the distribution has so far been uneven.
Seven states that have seen spikes in Covid-19 rates in recent weeks and months – Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas – have used 70% of the federal supply of monoclonal antibodies.
Several Republican leaders have made treatments a central part of their response to the pandemic, even appearing to defend them against vaccinations. Florida and Texas Governors Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott have touted the antibodies even as they oppose mask mandates and decry federal vaccine mandates imposed on large employers as “illegal” and ” takeover”. (Monoclonal antibodies are also provided by the United States government.)
Covid-19 vaccines are very effective in preventing hospitalizations and deaths, and they can also reduce the transmission of the virus – something antibody treatments cannot do.
Antibodies are also much more expensive, at around $ 2,100 a dose. In comparison, Covid vaccines cost between $ 10 and $ 20 a dose.
Dr Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer for the Association of State and Territory Health Officials, said it was important to prevent the spread of the virus rather than just treating the disease by likening the situation to ‘go upstream and shut off the tap, rather than dealing with the waterfall ”.
“By far the most effective [strategy] is vaccination, ”he said. “That’s the way out of this thing.”
Monoclonal antibodies are important treatments for the early prevention of severe symptoms in people who test positive for the coronavirus. The treatment is very effective when given early in the disease, and it can also be given to those who have been significantly exposed to a positive case – for example, family contact. The treatments have received authorizations for emergency use from certain at-risk groups over 12 years of age.
Faced with a processing shortage, the Biden administration has changed its allocation system and some states are opposing reduced shipments.
The Biden administration announced on September 9 that it would increase deliveries of the treatment from 100,000 to 150,000 doses per week. A few days later, the Department of Health announced that it would change the way supplies are distributed.
“They’re trying to find a way to make monoclonal antibodies available, but they’re doing it in a fair way,” Plescia said.
“There wasn’t a lot of demand for monoclonal antibodies until a month or two ago. It just popped up and it will take some time for manufacturers to react.
“We can start to see increases in other states, and I think the government was stepping in part to ensure that all of the supply was not used by states that are currently in the worst situation,” he said. declared Plescia.
Some of the states that have been hardest hit by the virus recently have opposed cutting their treatment supply.
DeSantis said the new distribution system would cut Florida’s supply in half, and he vowed to “fight like hell” for more treatments. Florida was due to receive nearly 30,000 doses of the treatment last week, which remained the largest shipment to the United States.
“Alabama hospitals are full and under tremendous stress,” said Dr. Aruna Arora, president of the state medical association. The state received 70% of the treatments it ordered last week, and new limitations on treatment could add additional strain on health systems, Aurora said.
The US government boosted supplies last week by purchasing an additional 1.4 million doses from Regeneron and 400,000 doses from Eli Lilly.
A similar allocation system was put in place earlier in the pandemic, but it was dismantled due to weak demand. Then, providers could order the treatment from the US government provider, AmeriSourceBergen. But now the administration is shipping doses to state health departments.
The distribution process has been “adjusted” several times this year, an HHS spokesperson told The Guardian, and the new system “will help maintain equitable distribution, both geographically and temporally, across the country.”
About 2.4 million treatments have been shipped across the country, and at least 1.1 million of these have been used.
For months, the antibodies sat on shelves due to testing delays and overwhelmed health systems. It is important to receive treatment as soon as possible after a positive test, but delays in testing make this difficult. And hospitals and infusion centers have struggled to deliver the treatment on a large scale.
“Our role as the government overseeing the whole country is to be fair in the way we distribute,” Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said in a briefing Thursday. “We’re not going to give Florida a bigger percentage than Oklahoma.”
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