At the beginning of August, two companies began clinical trials for a coronavirus antibody treatment known as monoclonal antibodies. They have been racing to complete the clinical trials and have even claimed they could have this treatment available before the vaccine.
What Are Monoclonal Antibodies?
Monoclonal Antibodies are man-made antibodies created to mimic the human body’s natural ones. When the body fights off infections and viruses it creates proteins called antibodies that naturally fight off specific diseases and prevent serious reinfection sometimes permanently and other times temporarily. It is still unclear whether natural COVID-19 antibodies prevent reinfection permanently, but the trial on the coronavirus antibody treatment was conducted to test if creating antibodies would end infections more quickly or prevent them from becoming seriously ill.
Trials And Positive Signs
The initial goal of the trial was to reduce the number of patients who were still infected 11 days later, but this did not end up working because patients with the placebo tested negative in the same amount of time as those who received the treatment. However, the benefit that the antibody treatment did have was on whether a COVID-19 infection became serious enough for hospitalization. Only 1.7 percent of patients given the treatment had to be hospitalized compared to the 6 percent of patients who needed to be hospitalized who were given a placebo. These are statistically significant numbers, but the trial was rather small with 302 patients being given the treatment and 150 being given the placebo.
Antibody Treatment In The Near Future
Even with a relatively small trial these are encouraging signs and they have created a plan for another trial on 2000+ patients to confirm the results. One of the companies working on the project has already begun manufacturing its antibody treatment and is hoping to have thousands of doses by fall if their trials continue to go well. Another trial began in August to test if the treatment could be used before infection as a preventative measure, but the jury remains out on this aspect of the trial.
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