The experimental drug President Trump received at the White House hours after being diagnosed with COVID-19 was provided under a “compassionate use” program usually reserved for patients who exhaust other treatment options, the manufacturer said Friday.
News of the president consuming the so-called “polyclonal antibody cocktail,” made by New York-based pharma Regeneron, broke around the same time the administration announced Trump was being taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland for treatment.
The therapy in question, which some developers refer to as “monoclonal,” combines two lab-grown proteins that attach to the spike proteins on the surface of the novel coronavirus. In theory, this can prevent the pathogen from adhering to the patients’ own cells and causing an infection. It might also help to reduce the severity of symptoms in people who’ve already been infected.