According to the website of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as of Monday, the United States has delivered more than half a million antibody therapeutic agents to states to treat Covid-19 patients who have not been admitted to the hospital. use.
As the treatments received an authorization for emergency use from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in November, the department said they delivered 454,087 courses with an Eli Lilly treatment and 96,923 courses Regeneron’s cocktail.
Both treatments are allowed for people 12 years and older, who are at high risk of progressing to a severe form of Covid-19. Both have been shown to reduce Covid-19-related hospitalization or emergency visits.
It is unclear exactly how many of the distributed antibody treatments were actually used; it is not posted by HHS or followed on state panels. Health officials said they are not being used enough; in Michigan, for example, less than 10% of the available Covid-19 monoclonal antibody treatments were used, Drs. William Fales, the medical director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, said last week.
The treatments are complicated to administer, in part because hospitals or infusion centers need to create a separate space to treat patients.