Anonymous ID: ca6169 March 16, 2021, 9:57 a.m. No.13237059   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>7164 >>7295 >>7413 >>7560 >>7663 >>7772

>>13237051

 

By Katie Thomas and Gina Kolata

 

Published Oct. 2, 2020Updated Dec. 23, 2020

 

President Trump has received a dose of an experimental antibody cocktail being developed by the drug maker Regeneron, in addition to several other drugs, including zinc, vitamin D and the generic version of the heartburn treatment Pepcid, according to a letter from his doctor that was released by the White House Friday afternoon.

 

Mr. Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, announced early Friday morning that they had tested positive for the coronavirus. The president has a low-grade fever, nasal congestion and a cough, according to two people close to Mr. Trump.

 

In the letter, Mr. Trump’s doctor, Dr. Sean P. Conley, said “he completed the infusion without incident” and that he “remains fatigued but in good spirits.”

 

There are no approved treatments for Covid-19, but the Regeneron treatment is one of the most promising candidates, along with another antibody treatment developed by Eli Lilly. Both are being tested in patients around the country. Initial results have suggested that they can reduce the level of the virus in the body and possibly shorten hospital stays — when they are given early in the course of infection.

 

Although Regeneron’s product has not been authorized for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration, companies can grant access to their experimental treatments through compassionate use, for example, if all other options have failed and a patient might die without trying the drug.

 

In an interview Friday afternoon, Regeneron’s chief executive, Dr. Leonard S. Schleifer, said Mr. Trump’s medical staff reached out to the company for permission to use the drug, and that it was cleared with the Food and Drug Administration.

 

“All we can say is that they asked to be able to use it, and we were happy to oblige,” he said. He said that so-called compassionate use cases — when patients are granted access to an experimental treatment outside of a clinical trial — are decided on a case-by-case basis and he is not the first patient to be granted permission to use the treatment this way. “When it’s the president of the United States, of course, that gets — obviously — gets our attention.”

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Dr. Schleifer has known Mr. Trump casually for years, having been a member of his golf club in Westchester County.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/02/health/trump-antibody-treatment.html