Majority of drugs to treat COVID-19 are going unused

The anti-body drugs were the ones that were once considered as the life savers, at a time when there was no vaccine and was essential to help the patient with coronavirus to recover fast. Moncef Slaoui, the head of Operation Warp Seed, which the coronavirus vaccine effort by the US government said that most of the doses of COVID-19 antibody drugs have not been used. Nearly, 65,000 doses of the drugs are sent out every week. These drugs help to protect people, who are at high risk of having severe COVID-19 or developing serious symptoms of the disease.

It has been noticed that just 5 to 20 percent of the drugs reach the patients. Slaoui while talking to a leading daily said that the situation is disappointing as the drugs can actually help people to remain out of the hospital. Another major reason why the doses are going unused, is the fact that they are complicated to be administered.

In the month of November, 2020 the Utah Department of Health said that the state was focusing on running the hospitals in the best possible way and that was the reason not much time could be given out for the distribution of the antibody drugs. On one hand where thousands of doses are going unused, the anti-body drugs which are made by the companies are actually limited in supply. Every state receives a fixed number of doses every week and that would be based on the number of COVID-19 cases that has been reported every week.

Another important factor about the antibody drug is that it has to be administered as soon as the patient contracts COVID-19 as timing is a very important factor here. This means that if the patients are getting tested and they are not getting the results in a short time, then they can fall ill and will not be able to benefit from the drug. The drug is administered intravenously due to which the patient has to go to the hospital or an outpatient facility.

Photo Credits: Pixabay