Ex-FDA head urges U.S. to build up COVID antibody reserves

Former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the U.S. should be piling up supplies of therapeutic antibodies even before any approval or emergency use authorization to treat COVID-19.

“We need a more coordinated national strategy around this,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” today.

The government should be working with companies ahead of their actual approval to ensure that sufficient supplies are available, he said. “We missed the window to do it on remdesivir,” he said, speaking about Gilead Science’s drug that received emergency use authorization in May.

Companies that are developing antibody treatments from the blood of COVID-19 patients include Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY), Regeneron (NASDAQ:REGN), closely held AbCellera Biologics, AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN), and Vir Biotechnology (NASDAQ:VIR).

The U.S. had about 45.3K new cases of COVID-19 yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of confirmed cases in the country to 2.85M, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.

Previously: Lilly launches study of antibody treatment for COVID-19 (June 1)

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3588565-ex-fda-head-urges-u-s-to-build-up-covid-antibody-reserves