A new weapon in the war against SARS-CoV-2 has been found
It is expensive, though, and in short supply
AN ANTIBODY THERAPY from Regeneron, a firm in upstate New York, improves the survival of patients with covid-19 and offers renewed hope for the treatment of those most seriously ill with the disease. A study in British hospitals found that Regen-Cov saved the lives of many of those unable to make their own antibodies in response to SARS-CoV-2. Such “seronegative” individuals constituted about a third of the 9,785 hospital patients in the study. As compared with a control group given standard treatment (either a steroid called dexamethasone or, for the sickest, an anti-inflammatory known as tocilizumab), 20% more patients survived. Regen-Cov also reduced the median length of hospital stays from 17 to 13 days.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Antibody of evidence”
From the June 19th 2021 edition
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