Regeneron says half of its COVID-19 treatment doses are sent to 4 states with low vaccination rates

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Regeneron Infusion Center in Florida Chandan Khanna / AFP / Getty Images

Health officials agree that if you are newly infected with COVID-19 and have an above average risk of becoming seriously ill, you should seek treatment quickly with monoclonal antibody therapy from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. The federal government is covering the costs, some states have set up free infusion centers, and the antibody cocktail has been shown to reduce hospitalization rates by 70% for high-risk COVID-19 patients treated in hospitals. 10 days.

“They are safe, they are free, they keep people out of the hospital and help them stay alive,” said Dr Marcella Nunez-Smith, senior advisor to the COVID-19 response team. the White House, during a press conference on August 12. House briefing.

But the strongest promotion of Regeneron’s experimental treatment comes from governors in Texas and Florida, “where vaccinations are lagging behind and hospitalizations skyrocket with Delta-variant infections” even as governors “downplay the disease. vaccination and other measures which health officials say may prevent disease in the first place, ” News from Kaiser Santé reports. Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R), who received the cocktail of antibodies produced in the lab by Regeneron earlier this month, on Wednesday banned government entities from requiring FDA-approved vaccinations.

The FDA approved Regeneron for emergency treatment late last year, but few people used it when vaccines became available and helped crush infections and hospitalizations. Then the Delta variant won out. Since mid-July, Regeneron shipments have “gone from 25,000 doses to 125,000 doses per week, with about half shipped to four states: Florida, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama,” News from Kaiser Santé reports, citing Regeneron spokesperson Alexandra Bowie.

This “expensive, cumbersome and difficult to use therapy” is “by no means a substitute for the vaccine,” said Dr. Christian Ramers, an infectious disease specialist at Family Health Centers in San Diego. News from Kaiser Santé. “It’s like playing defense without attacking.”

Regeneron infusions cost around $ 1,250 a dose, not counting the hundreds of dollars to transport the drug and deliver the hour-long infusion. News from Kaiser Santé Remarks. “The federal government is also covering the costs of the COVID vaccination, at around $ 20 per dose. “

These two procedures are much less expensive than hospitalization of COVID-19 patients. But it is “fiscally irresponsible” and “downright contemptible for” small conservative governments “to look to the federal government to hand out the most extravagant bailouts to their states when they have so willfully wasted – and hampered – measures so much. more careful and effective. “like vaccines and masks, writes Neil J. Young at The week.

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