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Two out of three antibody treatments fail against the Omicron variant

A man undergoes a rapid Covid-19 test at a medical van in New York on December 17, 2021. — © AFP
A man undergoes a rapid Covid-19 test at a medical van in New York on December 17, 2021. — © AFP

The single remaining monoclonal antibody therapy effective against the variant is now in short supply in the U.S., imperiling an option that doctors and hospitals have relied on.

Hospitals, drug companies, and the Biden administration are rushing to address one of the biggest threats now posed by the Omicron variant: Two of the three monoclonal antibody treatments used on many coronavirus patients do not appear to work against this variant.

These drugs are designed to kill the virus and have so far stood up in tests against the variants of concern, including early lab studies with Omicron, according to Politico.

However, only one of the available antibodies — sotrovimab, made by GlaxoSmithKline — appears to be effective against the omicron variant, which accounts for the majority of new Covid cases in the U.S.

Sotrovimab, needless to say, is now in short supply in the U.S., with many hospitals having none left, the New York Times reports.

In New York, hospital administrators at New York-Presbyterian, N.Y.U. Langone and Mount Sinai all said in recent days that they would stop giving patients the two most commonly used antibody treatments, made by Eli Lilly and Regeneron.

Hospitals in other parts of the country say they have very limited supplies of sotrovimab given how new it is, said Dr. Marcus Plescia, the chief medical officer for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

Dr. Plescia said the organization has been told that supplies will increase significantly over the next few weeks as production scales up, according to NBC News.

The federal government paused shipments of all monoclonal antibodies late last month while scientists studied the antibodies’ effectiveness against the omicron variant, said a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services.

But recently, the federal government began distributing 55,000 doses of sotrovimab, to states and hospitals with the first shipments set for delivery Tuesday. These are the remaining doses from a federal contract with GlaxoSmithKline.

Kathleen Quinn, a spokeswoman for the company, declined to say how many doses the company has available, citing confidentiality agreements. The company is supplying sotrovimab in several other countries, including the U.K., Japan, and Canada, and it has sold 750,000 doses worldwide, Quinn said.

“We are working with urgency and exploring options to expand our supply capacity in 2022 so that we can support more patients,” she said.

The Department of Health and Human Services says it expects about 300,000 doses of sotrovimab to be available next month, according to a spokesperson.

In the meantime, some hospitals say they are left with no options for patients. Dr. Stavros Christoudias, a physician at Valley Health and board chair of the New Jersey Doctor-Patient Alliance, said he has a fully vaccinated leukemia patient in desperate need of antibodies, but none are available at his hospital.

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We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of our dear friend Karen Graham, who served as Editor-at-Large at Digital Journal. She was 78 years old. Karen's view of what is happening in our world was colored by her love of history and how the past influences events taking place today. Her belief in humankind's part in the care of the planet and our environment has led her to focus on the need for action in dealing with climate change. It was said by Geoffrey C. Ward, "Journalism is merely history's first draft." Everyone who writes about what is happening today is indeed, writing a small part of our history.

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