A human monoclonal 1 antibody blocking SARS-CoV-2 infection

Re:A human monoclonal 1 antibody blocking SARS-CoV-2 infection by dogma1138 on Saturday March 14, 2020 @08:35AM (#22574807)

Monolocal antibodies require a complex and expensive process of cell cloning there are only a handful of labs capable of producing these and non of these can scale up production to anything close that is needed for a large scale epidemic not to mention a world wide pandemic.

This is still cutting edge biotech used for experimental treatment for cancer and other diseases often getting an orphan drug or other exemption certification to go on the market.

You also will be hard pressed to find insurance companies to cover these atm.

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Re:A human monoclonal 1 antibody blocking SARS-CoV-2 infection by dnhz on Saturday March 14, 2020 @09:13PM (#22580235)

The parent comment mentioned existing therapies. As in drugs like Humira, PD-1 inhibitors, PCSK9 inhibitors. No doubt they are complex to produce. But I was doubting that the costs of production are the reason why these drugs are expensive. Companies will charge what payers will pay. See Humira [1]: many times more costly in the US than in the UK.

1: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adalimumab

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