As polling shows that public confidence in Dr. Anthony Fauci, the CDC, and the FDA is falling, President Biden’s administration made the decision to stop the shipment of the COVID treatment drug, sotrovimab, to 14 more states.
GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology produce the drug, which some argue has proven effective in treating COVID.
Biden’s order raises to 22, the number of states restricted from using the drug2. The latest states barred from using sotrovimab are Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin, Arizona, California, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii.
The U.S. government purchased millions of doses of sotrovimab in 2021, distributing the drug weekly to health care facilities across the country.
According to the Epoch Times, Sotrovimab, a monoclonal antibody, was granted emergency use authorization “for treating patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 who are designated as high-risk for progressing to severe cases.”
But emerging data suggest the drug does not work against BA.2, a new subvariant of the Omicron virus variant, U.S. regulators say. Therefore, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) halted shipments.
The FDA ruling notes that any region where BA.2 is identified as causing most COVID-19 cases can no longer administer sotrovimab.
The Epoch Times reports that the pharmaceutical companies “GSK and Vir” dispute the ruling and are “preparing a package of data in support of a higher dose of sotrovimab for the Omicron BA.2 subvariant and will be sharing these data with regulatory and health authorities around the world for discussion.”
The National Institute of Health’s COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel, said that it is no longer recommending the monoclonal for treatment in any region due to the FDA’s updates and “the increasing prevalence of the BA.2 subvariant across all regions.”
The U.S. government purchased millions of doses in 2021 and was distributing the drug to health care facilities on a weekly basis to states to provide.
Those shipments have been halted due to emerging data suggesting the drug does not work well against BA.2, a subvariant of the Omicron virus variant, U.S.
Testing indicates that other COVID-19 treatments retain some benefit against BA.2, including Pfizer’s Paxlovid pill.
Glaxo and Vir said in a recent joint statement that they were aware of the FDA’s actions. Their statement announced:
“GSK and Vir are preparing a package of data in support of a higher dose of sotrovimab for the Omicron BA.2 subvariant and will be sharing these data with regulatory and health authorities around the world for discussion.”
Meanwhile, the COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel said that it is no longer recommending the monoclonal for treatment in any region due to the FDA’s updates and “the increasing prevalence of the BA.2 subvariant across all regions.”
The Epoch Times reports that the National Institutes of Health recommends “paxlovid and Gilead Sciences’ remdesivir” to treat COVID. “In situations where neither are available, alternative therapies include bebtelovimab and Merck’s pill molnupiravir.”
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