White House physician Dr. Sean Conley who is treating President Trump following his coronavirus diagnosis briefed reporters about the new experimental infusion being used.

President Trump’s medical team has opted for a promising antibody cocktail by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals co-founded by Greek-American Dr. George Yancopoulos who has built and managed Regeneron alongside Dr. Schleifer since 1989; he has also served on the board since 2001.

Dr. Yancopoulos M.D., Ph.D. said that Mr Trump’s one infusion “seemed to go through very well and will last a long time”, while talking to “CAVUTO Live” hosted by Neil Cavuto on Saturday.

Dr. Conley also confirmed that the White House medical team members were “extremely happy with the progress” the President is making in such a short time.

“It’s all about beating the virus and so we’re just helping the natural immune system beat it, by supplementing it with this antibody cocktail.

Just this week, Regeneron announced their antibody cocktail reduced viral levels and improved symptoms in non-hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

“We figured out ways to make the best of the antibodies that your body makes but we can make them outside of the body in these huge bioreactors, purify them and give them back to you in highly-concentrated form so it’s like we’re substituting for or supplementing your own immune system with these very powerful antibodies,” Dr. Yancopoulos said.

Regeneron which specialises in biotechnology, confirmed it has released the drug under the “Compassionate Use Request” in which the Food & Drug Administration permits usage to those not in clinical trials, according to the Mayo Clinic. This process normally takes a long time.

In a study Dr. Yancopoulos and his team released earlier this week, it is explained how their “approach convincingly can really dramatically lower viral levels,” which is something other researchers have not been able to show yet.

“Patients who have the highest viral levels, who are at the highest risk presumably, in a few days with our cocktail, we can lower those viral levels by about 99 per cent,” Dr. Yancopoulos explained.

Regeneron promises that with just one injection, the antibodies can last for months to treat and beat the virus but also protect the patient.

It’s a technology he said his company’s scientists invented and pioneered over the last 20 years.

“We use this to produce some of the most important and safest medicines in the world right now, to fight blindness, asthma, cancer, atopic dermatitis, heart disease and most importantly, we used this to produce the first therapeutic that will be approved by the FDA for Ebola, and so we made an antibody cocktail specific for ebola. It was tested in a study coordinated by the World Health Organization and the NIH,” Dr. Yancopoulos stressed.

“It’s the same exact approach,” he added, “and that’s why I think a lot of people were following our work and very excited that we were applying the same tried and true technologies to attack this pandemic and they had a lot of hope that maybe, like it worked for Ebola and for all these other diseases, it could work as well here.”

In another interview to Science Magazine, Dr Yancopoulos said that Trump received a much higher dose likely out of “an abundance of caution” by the President’s medical team. Regeneron’s co-founder clarified that even though he does not know why the President’s physicians chose to use 8 grams, the company’s data indicate there’s “very, very limited risk that the antibodies will cause harm at either dose”.

“The higher dose might last longer”, he said, going through study data that suggest higher doses are more powerfully in beating the virus.

“If I had to treat one patient, I’d give the high dose,” Dr. Yancopoulos went on to tell Science Magazine.
“From a societal point of view and the need to treat as many people as possible, I’d give the lower dose.”

ABOUT GEORGE YANCOPOULOS

Dr. Yancopoulos, along with key members of his team, is the principal inventor of Regeneron’s seven FDA-approved drugs and foundational technologies, including the TRAP technology, VelociGene® and VelocImmune®.

He has been named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and has been pivotal in creating the science-driven, collaborative and highly-productive R&D culture at Regeneron.

Dr. Yancopoulos attended the Bronx High School of Science and received his MD and PhD from Columbia University.

In a recent interview, Dr. Yancopoulos said that “we owe everything we are, everything we do to our Greek heritage”.

“I was raised to be incredibly proud of Greece, but I was also raised to believe that there was something special about the people who came to America, because they were seld-selected to be yearning for more.”

 

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