Drugs that can help keep COVID-19 patients out of the hospital are playing only a small role in Michigan, where the pandemic is accelerating. Logistical challenges are to blame.
Researchers are reporting some progress in their search for drugs that tamp down the overwhelming immune reaction that can kill a patient with COVID-19.
Drugs for COVID-19 are sorted into three basic categories: They work, they don't work, or there simply isn't enough information to know. A generic steroid is one medicine that proved helpful.
Antibody-based drugs that bind to the coronavirus to prevent it from invading cells can help patients with mild to moderate COVID-19. But the medicines can be tough to find in time.
While logistical challenges have hampered use of antibody drugs to treat people with mild-to-moderate COVID-19, recent results show the medicines can be worthwhile.
Monoclonal antibodies to prevent severe COVID-19 aren't being used as widely as expected. Medical staff shortages and patient transportation problems are two of the reasons.
To boost the supply of Regeneron's antibody therapy for COVID-19, the federal government entered into a $450 million supply contract. Details of the deal show some safeguards are missing.
The federal government plans to distribute 300,000 doses of the drug at no cost, but that doesn't mean treatment will be free. Intravenous infusion charges can run more than $1,000.
Experimental medicines have the potential to help people with COVID-19 avoid hospitalization. The scarce supply of the treatments would have to be rationed, if regulators OK their use.
Medical researchers have high hopes that the kind of treatment the president received could end up being an important element in the fight against the pandemic. But clinical trials continue.
Drugs are being tested that could reduce symptoms and save lives. But, given the way drugs are developed, it's unlikely that any single medicine will be anywhere as potent as a successful vaccine.
While only remdesivir has been scientifically shown to help treat COVID-19, it is not a particularly effective drug. More drugs like it and fundamentally different ones are in the pipeline.
As many firms and academic researchers vie for blood donations from survivors in hopes of isolating components for new treatments, one project is turning for help from 10,000 Orthodox Jewish women.
A treatment strategy that identifies particularly potent immune system proteins, then gins up mass quantities for a single dose might help prevent infections or quell symptoms, scientists say.
The new coronavirus has spurred biotech labs in universities and companies to try to find new approaches to stopping the virus — from blocking its key enzymes to interfering with its genetics.
By targeting the process that creates toxic clumps of protein in brain cells, scientists hope to help not just Alzheimer's patients, but perhaps also people with Lewy Body dementia and Parkinson's.
