Coronavirus: What is monoclonal antibody treatment for COVID-19? How effective is it? | The Times of India

As per reports, REGEN-COV2 is available in India through a collaboration between Swiss drug giant Roche and Cipla. In October 2021, the US FDA had also issued its emergency use authorization for post-exposure prophylaxis or prevention.

However, its applicability for treatment of Omicron variant induced COVID-19 infection has been criticised by experts.

One of the leading virologists of India Dr Gagandeep Kang had called it unethical, immoral and unscientific for doctors to ask patients to take monoclonal antibody treatment. “Please remember that even among clinical vulnerable, most contacts will stay asymptomatic or have mild symptoms & recover. Small no. develop severe illness (in India, we have little data so we do not know whether 5% or 20% of vaccinated elderly with omicron will progress).n any case, all the ones who would have gotten better anyway will do fine—but having given antibodies, doctors will ascribe that to their treatment and the hospitals will laugh all the way to the bank,” she had tweeted in January, 2022.

“…the licensed monoclonal antibody products in India do not neutralise omicron. Yet doctors in private hospitals are prescribing monoclonal antibody therapy,” researcher Gagandeep Kang had said in a tweet in January 2022. In a series of tweets Dr Kang has talked about the monoclonal treatment availability and requirement in India. “The argument I hear from well-meaning doctors (thankfully not infectious disease specialists) is that it is only one lakh and my patient can afford to buy it, so why not? Why not? It is unethical, immoral and unscientific. Surely, as doctors we can teach and practice better medicine than this. And as patients, please ask for what each drug is expected to do and the evidence to back that up,” reads one of Dr Kang’s tweets.

The latest guidelines issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) does not recommend use of monoclonal antibodies for COVID treatment.