Last week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted initial approval to an experimental monoclonal COVID-19 drug, paving the way for more widespread use of the promising antibody-based therapy in coming months. Taken in tandem with Pfizer announcing its leading coronavirus vaccine candidate had been 90 percent effective in advanced trials, it was welcome news in a country experiencing well over 100,000 new COVID-19 cases a day.
But bottlenecks are likely to slow doctors’ efforts to include monoclonal antibodies in the standard of care for COVID-19. The coming weeks and months will amount to a race to develop clever ways to scale up production and distribution of these therapies even as hospitals are overwhelmed—and deaths spiral.
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