After seeing orders for monoclonal antibodies soar in recent weeks, officials at the federal Department of Health and Human Services have taken control of distribution – which could mean less availability of the COVID-19 treatment in Orange County in the near future.
Demand rose about 20-fold in the last few weeks, so federal officials changed how the therapeutics are distributed to give priority to areas with high rates of COVID-19 cases and people hospitalized with the disease, said Orange County Deputy Health Officer Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong.
Instead of hospitals and health providers ordering monoclonal antibodies directly from manufacturers, since Sept. 13 the federal health agency has been determining how much each state will get, depending on how much it’s using and its COVID-19 case burden, according to the HHS website. States then divide up the supply among their counties, which distribute the antibodies to health providers.
Because of that change, supplies could become tight in Orange County, and how long the issue lasts will depend on whether production can be ramped up and how well other states get a handle on COVID-19 infections, Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong said. She’s already heard from several health care providers wondering where they can get the antibodies.
Monoclonal antibodies are made in a lab, and they function like natural antibodies, targeting the coronavirus and helping the patient fight it off. While three varieties have federal authorization for emergency use, Regeneron is the most widely used.
In patients with COVID-19 who have other health risks, the antibody infusion “may reduce the severity of the COVID symptoms, (and) it may help prevent folks from going back to the emergency department or going back to the hospital and having worsening symptoms,” Dr. Alpesh Amin, UCI Health’s executive director of hospital medicine, said.
The treatment works best when given within a week of the onset of symptoms, and it can often be given as an outpatient treatment. Amin said he hasn’t heard of supply issues in the UCI Health system, but patients have been asking for monoclonal antibodies, and earlier this month UCI Health reopened a stand-alone clinic for the therapy that was created during the winter surge.
According to the HHS website, last week’s supply of monoclonal antibodies to California was 5,130 doses. That’s compared to the 23,640 doses allocated to Texas and 30,950 doses sent to Florida, which currently rank highest in the nation for average daily hospitalizations and deaths, according to New York Times data (California ranks third in those categories, but has significantly more residents than the other two states).
Chinsio-Kwong said Orange County healthcare providers that need monoclonal antibodies can request them from the OC Health Care Agency’s operations center.
