Name: The Science of the COVID-19 Treatments Trump Received
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President Trump said that he recovered from COVID-19 in part thanks to an antibody cocktail. What is an antibody cocktail and how does it work?

In early October 2020, President Trump tested positive for COVID-19.

President Trump said that he recovered from COVID-19 in part thanks to an antibody cocktail. What is an antibody cocktail and how does it work?

The Science of the COVID-19 Treatments Trump Received

Science of the COVID-19 Treatments Trump Received

In early October 2020, President Trump tested positive for COVID-19.

Body & Brain

The Science of the COVID-19 Treatments Trump ReceivedPublished: November 2, 2020President Donald Trump: I don't know what it was… antibodies. Antibodies. I don’t know. I took it, I felt like Superman. Narrator: President Trump says he’s recovered from COVID-19, in part thanks to an antibody cocktail.Trump: They gave me Regeneron and other things too but I think this was the key and it was unbelievable, I felt good immediately.Annie Luetkemeyer: The reason that this is called a cocktail is because the Regeneron combination has two separate antibodies that have been developed and that are given together. Narrator: According to the White House physician, President Trump received three treatments for the coronavirus—a steroid called dexamethasone, antiviral drug remdesivr , and biotech company Regeneron’s cocktail of monoclonal antibodiesSo, what are all these drugs?And how can we know if any of them actually make a difference?Luetkemeyer: I can't tell you which one of those was effective. It may have been all three. It may have been that he was already on his way to getting better and had received no therapy, he would have gotten better. Narrator: The steroid dexamethasone is usually given to patients to stop the immune system from raging out of control. Remdesivir, is an antiviral drug originally developed to treat Ebola and was identified early on as a possible COVID treatment. It’s designed to gum up the tiny molecular machinery inside a cell that makes copies of the virus.Luetkemeyer: It sort of stops its ability to make copies of itself. And if you can't make copies of itself and then it can't continue with the infection. Narrator: Regeneron’s cocktail works a little differently. it gives the body’s natural immune response a boost by delivering antibodies to it. Antibodies are proteins naturally made by the immune system to protect against foreign invaders like viruses.Kathryn E. Stephenson: So whenever someone is infected with, say, a virus, and particularly for COVID-19, they do develop antibodies, which is a type of immune response. And this immune response helps us clear the infection and recover. In most people, it takes about two weeks to develop that immune response. Narrator: But these antibodies -- known as monoclonal antibodies -- are manufactured. Monoclonal antibody treatment was pioneered by Congolese scientist Jean-Jacques Muyembe to treat Ebola Stephenson: Monoclonal just means that it's made in a factory.What a monoclonal antibody is, is identifying that type of antibody, maybe one or two that are really effective, at least in the lab, in neutralizing this virus and then making that antibody, you say, in a factory, putting it into a vial and then just giving it with a syringe to a patient. So you're basically giving that instead of waiting two weeks, you're giving them the antibody right away. The monoclonal antibodies block the virus from getting into our cells and replicating by binding to it and neutralizing it Narrator: Monoclonal antibody treatments are not yet available outside of clinical trials but early data suggests that the treatment might reduce the amount of viral particles in non-hospitalized patientsHana El Sahly: What was found is that the antibody combination did result in speeding up the clearance of the virus from the upper airways of these patients. Particularly those who did not have antibodies to start with, which means that they were very early on in their illness as opposed to others. Narrator: But there is limited data on how effective these drugs are in treating the coronavirus and even less is known about how they interact with each other. the treatments trump received are still being studied in clinical trials. which are studies that test the safety and effectiveness of new drugs in humans. but it a drug may not improve outcomes for everyone. and when patients agree to be a part of a clinical trial, they don't necessarily get the new drug. Stephenson: In a randomized controlled or double blind study, individuals sign up to be in the study and then they're just kind of randomly assigned to either get the the active product or a placebo. A randomized controlled trial, especially if its double-blind, is considered the gold standard. And without it, we always have that little bit of doubt. Does it really work? I really don't know. But if I see the results from a randomized controlled trial, then I'm a believer. Narrator: Another clinical trial of monoclonal antibodies - this one by Eli Lilly - was recently paused due to a potential safety concern.Now an independent review board will look at the data collected so far to determine if it’s safe for the study to continue. But a monoclonal antibody could reach hospitals before clinical trials conclude. Both Eli Lilly and regeneron filed for emergency use authorization with the FDA -- which would allow the drug to be administered before it is fully approved. Luetkemeyer: Emergency use authorization or an EUA is the way that the FDA says that there's enough data in sort of a dire situation to say, OK, it's OK to use this medicine until we have enough data to get full authorization.It doesn't mean that it doesn't still need to get FDA authorization through the typical pathways. But it's a way for people to get early access to a drug that might be that might be lifesaving although the preliminary data is promising, there is still much more testing to be done before a drug is fully approved Narrator: And even when treatments are shown to work, there are still issues of access and cost.Still, some remain optimistic about the rapid progress science has made so far.Luetkemeyer: I must say, looking back, I'm actually really proud of what we've been able to accomplish, really kind of grassroots as well. Like a lot of investigators and scientists just working together very, very quickly to stand up incredibly complex studies. I mean, huge multi center studies with brand new interventions. And the fact that we can have data really within six months showing interventions that have a mortality benefit like dexamethasone, I think is actually pretty incredible. So, you know, it's hard. We always think about the mistakes or lost opportunities. But, you know, I think over time I'll look back and see that there were a lot of winners during this as well and some pretty amazing accomplishments.

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The Science of the COVID-19 Treatments Trump Received

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Support Provided By

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