U.S. Should Build Up Antibody Therapy Supply, Ex-FDA Chief Says
(Bloomberg) --
The U.S. should be building up reserves of therapeutic antibodies now ahead of any potential approval or emergency use authorization to treat the coronavirus, said the former head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
“We need a more coordinated national strategy around this,” ex-FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said on CBS's “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
Gottlieb said the U.S. government could encourage drugmakers to curtail production of less essential medicines for a time, in favor of making more antibody treatments now.
A handful of drugmakers and academic centers are racing to test new antibody treatments from the blood of recovered Covid-19 patients. Eli Lilly & Co. and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. are in the lead of developing so-called neutralizing antibodies that can mimic immune responses to the virus, and may report some of the first results in the third quarter.
Lilly is working with closely held AbCellera Biologics Inc., while AstraZeneca Plc and Vir Biotechnology Inc. are testing new treatments.
Read more: Antibody Treatments May Be Best Hope Against Virus Until Vaccine
The government should be working with companies ahead of time to make sure enough supplies are available, the former FDA head said. “That's what should be happening, particularly around the antibodies. We missed the window to do it on remdesivir,” he said referring to Gilead Sciences Inc.'s drug that received the agency's emergency use authorization in May.
As it stands the U.S. may have enough of Gilead's drug for now, but if the pandemic worsens and doctors seek to use remdesivir beyond the scope of its current label, particularly in patients with pre-existing conditions before they become very sick, the U.S. missed the window and won't have enough medicine for that, Gottlieb said.
Gottlieb had cautious words about the upcoming fall and winter and the likely incidence of the coronavirus, even as the U.S. continues to log record daily numbers of cases.
“We're not going to be able to crush this virus at this point because there's so much infection around, and we really don't seem to have the political will to do it,” he said.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
-
Navigating Energy Crossroads: S Jaishankar's Call For Diversified Supply Chains At G20 Ministerial Meeting
As geopolitical fault lines continue to test maritime trade routes and commodity flows, Jaishankar's message remains pertinent: true economic resilience requires open markets, protected transit lines, and a genuine commitment to multilateral cooperation rather than coercion.
-
Indians Are Travelling, But Not Every Journey Is A Holiday | The Week In Whys
Pilgrims, patients and working women are the real travellers, and the system hasn't quite caught up with them.
-
Getting To Work Costs Women More | The Reason Why
It is not just about women paying more than men. It is about women paying much more in cities than in villages.
-
AI Bias In Investing Cannot Be Eliminated, But It Can Be Governed
Framing is a particularly important example as identical financial information presented in terms of gains rather than losses can lead an LLM to reach a different assessment.
-
Joining The Dots | Dark Skies, Steady Diya: Why Hope Holds This Diwali
With war, a weak rupee and foreign outflows weighing on sentiment, policymakers at the NDTV World Summit and market veterans at NDTV Profit Ignite: Diwali Edition offered the same advice: stay invested and filter out the noise.
-
The Curious Case of Equitas Small Finance Bank And A CEO Who Quit For Stock
PN Vasudevan believes persistent investor concerns over a perceived conflict of interest had become a governance overhang on Equitas Small Finance Bank's stock, even as the lender improved profitability and asset quality.
-
Talking Points This Week: AI Cash Burn, A Tiger Comeback And An India That Still Finds Its Own Path
India is not immune to higher oil or tighter global liquidity, yet its earnings base is broader, its domestic policy levers are still available.
-
Foreign Investors Own Half Of HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank. An LTCG Cut Could Matter Most Here
Foreign portfolio investors have US$115 billion parked in HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank. If the government cuts long-term capital gains tax, Jefferies says returning foreign money could land here first.
