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An injection may block COVID-19, but feds have failed to act - Los Angeles Times
Jul 10, 2020 5 mins, 39 secs
It might be the next best thing to a coronavirus vaccine.

Scientists have devised a way to use the antibody-rich blood plasma of COVID-19 survivors for an upper-arm injection that they say could inoculate people against the virus for months.

The two scientists who spearheaded the proposal — an 83-year-old shingles researcher and his counterpart, an HIV gene therapy expert — have garnered widespread support from leading blood and immunology specialists, including those at the center of the nation’s COVID-19 plasma research.

The lack of interest in launching development of immunity shots comes amid heightened scrutiny of the federal government’s sluggish pandemic response.

However, he said, scientists should first demonstrate that the coronavirus antibodies that are currently delivered to patients intravenously in hospital wards across the country actually work.

They say that until there’s a vaccine, the shots offer the only plausible method for preventing potentially millions of infections at a critical moment in the pandemic.

Michael Joyner, a Mayo Clinic researcher who leads a program sponsored by the Food and Drug Administration to capitalize on coronavirus antibodies from COVID-19 survivors.

The antibodies in plasma can be concentrated and delivered to patients through a type of drug called immune globulin, or Ig, which can be given through either an IV drip or a shot.

Yet for the coronavirus, manufacturers are only developing an intravenous solution of Ig.

Joyner told The Times that 600 COVID-19 survivors donating their plasma each day could, depending on donation volumes and concentrations, generate up to 5,000 Ig shots.

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The proposal for an injection approach to coronavirus prevention came from an immunization researcher who drew his inspiration from history.

Michael Oxman knew that, even during the 1918 flu pandemic, the blood of recovered patients appeared to help treat others.

Like other doctors, Oxman surmised that, for a limited time, the blood coursing through the veins of coronavirus survivors probably contains immune-rich antibodies that could prevent — or help treat — an infection.

The agency granted $12.5 million to Grifols and $14.5 million to Emergent BioSolutions to produce plasma-based COVID-19 medicines in IV form drips, among more than 50 different biomedical partnerships to fight the pandemic.

What’s more, prophylactic shots would probably require far fewer antibodies than IV treatments, Joyner said?

With Ig shots, plasma donations could possibly go twice — or even five times — as far, he said?

He held weekly phone calls with Schmidt, the distributor; together, the two tried to convince seven different companies to produce the shots themselves and bring them to health agencies for testing?

Intravenous plasma products are traditionally the main economic driver for the industry, supply experts said, in part because vaccines have replaced many short-term immunity shots over the years.

The money-making antibodies are also far more diluted in intravenous drugs than in injectable ones, which boosts profit margins.

They don’t want to devote the manufacturing plant to something that won’t make oodles of money,” said one infectious disease expert, who has advocated for coronavirus Ig shots but asked not to be publicly identified.

Researchers also said industry executives have little incentive to produce the immunity shots for the coronavirus, given the possibility that a longer-lasting vaccine could replace it within a year.

Arturo Casadevall, the chair of the National COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Project, said he spoke to FDA officials who told him they do not instruct companies on what to produce.

carrying coronavirus antibodies — and the number keeps climbing.

If just 2% of them were to donate a standard 800 ml of plasma on three separate occasions, their plasma alone could generate millions of Ig shots for high-risk Americans.

topped 1 million confirmed coronavirus cases — made a major product announcement that would “expand its leadership in disease treatment with immunoglobulins.”.

The product was a new vial for Ig shots — to treat rabies.

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