President Trump has received an experimental antibody cocktail that may be able to lower the level of coronavirus in the body. The same cocktail is in clinical trials here in Chicago.
Cook County Health has a study up and running that looks at the product developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, based in New York.
Six people here are enrolled so far. They are healthy, but live with someone who is COVID-positive.
"I've seen some comments about folks being concerned that the president is taking something that's experimental. But really, that's all we have right now," Dr. Sybil Hosek, the Chicago study's principal investigator, said Friday.
"And until we complete these trials and are able to get good data on treatment and prevention, we won't have anything to offer people that isn't experimental."
Dr. Hosek says that's why people are needed to volunteer for the antibody study.
The president is receiving monoclonal antibodies, and that's the same thing that Dr. Hosek's study uses.
Monoclonal antibodies are human antibodies "engineered in the laboratory to fight a particular illness," she said.
"In this case they've been engineered to attach to the spike protein of the coronavirus. And in Regeneron's view, having more than one antibody, as opposed to just one antibody, is better — less chance that the virus would escape," Hosek says.
There should be some results within months, she said.
