The rapidly-spreading omicron variant may soon leave U.S. doctors without two of the standard treatments they’ve used to fight COVID-19.
Dr. Aldo Calvo, Medical Director of Family Medicine at Broward Health, shows a Regeneron monoclonal antibody infusion bag during a news conference, Aug. 19, 2021 at the Hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. As strained U.S. hospitals brace for a new surge of omicron COVID-19 cases, doctors are warning of yet another challenge: the two standard drugs they’ve used to treat early coronavirus infections are unlikely to work against the new variant.
A third antibody from British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline appears to be the best positioned to fight omicron. But Glaxo’s drug is not widely available in the U.S., accounting for a small portion of the millions of doses purchased by the federal government and distributed to states. Glaxo's drug, developed with Vir Biotechnology, was specifically formulated to bind to a part of the virus that is less likely to mutate, according to the companies. Early studies of laboratory-simulated omicron by the drugmakers and outside researchers show promising results.
Those decisions could be particularly complex in coming weeks if different parts of the country see varying levels of delta and omicron strains.
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