What is Regeneron’s antibody treatment?published at 07:46 British Summer Time 3 October 2020
Trump’s physician, Sean Conley, has said the president has been given the experimental antibody treatment from Regeneron. But what is it?
Prof Peter Horby, an Oxford University epidemiologist who chairs the UK's New and Emerging Respiratory Viral Threats Advisory Group, says it is a "cocktail of two antibodies".
The artificially produced anitbodies, which mimic the body's natural defence against viruses, are designed to bind strongly to a protein on the surface of the virus, he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"It helps prevent the virus attaching to the cells, entering the cells and replicating. And it also helps our own immune system to attack and kill the virus," he says.
Horby says it's "one of the most promising" drugs to treat Covid-19, having a strong effect in laboratory cell cultures and in animal tests. It is, he adds, currently part of the UK's Recovery trial, which has previously shown the steroid dexamethasone is an effective treatment.
Regeneron's treatment is already available to patients in three hospitals in the north of England as part of the trial and is being extended to 30 or 40 more hospitals, Horby says.