The United States begins distributing 30,000 doses of experimental antibodies



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Lusa

The US administration will begin on Tuesday distributing 30,000 doses of experimental antibodies to fight covid-19, the same that Donald Trump received in October when he was infected with the new coronavirus.

On Sunday the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA, its acronym in English) agreed to allow the use of drugs for people with mild to moderate infection symptoms from the new coronavirus, but who have a high risk to develop other serious illness, old age or other medical conditions.

The antibody is not licensed for use in critically ill, hospitalized, or patients requiring extra oxygen.

The antibodies bind to the virus and help the immune system eliminate it. The Regeneron drug is a combination of two antibodies that appeared to work well in laboratory tests.

Urgent clearance from the FDA allows for limited use of a drug as studies continue to test its safety and efficacy. Early results suggest it is reducing hospitalizations or visits to health centers linked to covid-19.

The drugs are given as a single intravenous treatment. For now, the drugs will be provided free of charge, although patients may have to pay part of the cost of intravenous treatment.

The covid-19 pandemic has caused at least 1,388,590 deaths resulting from more than 58.6 million cases of the infection worldwide, according to a report by the French agency AFP.

The disease is transmitted by a new coronavirus detected in late December 2019 in Wuhan, a city in central China.

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