No more monoclonal antibody treatments for Covid are available in the U.S. The FDA on Wednesday rescinded its authorization of the drug previously given to patients who faced a high risk of severe disease.
"The big problem is that monoclonal antibodies bind to a very small piece of the virus. As the virus changes, we are now in a position in which we lost them all because they don’t bind to the virus anymore," said Dr. Arturo Casadevall, a professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
Dr. Rodney Rohde, chair of the Clinical Laboratory Science Program at Texas State University, said he worries about how immunocompromised patients will fare with fewer treatment options. Razonable said Mayo Clinic patients who are at high risk of severe Covid but can't take Paxlovid are now offered the antiviral drug remdesivir at the infusion center where the hospital previously gave monoclonal antibodies. But remdesivir infusions are given over three days, so patients need multiple appointments.
A spokesperson for Eli Lilly said the company is searching for and evaluating monoclonal antibody candidates. AstraZeneca, meanwhile, is developing a new antibody cocktail that it hopes to make available by the end of next year, a company spokesperson said.
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