Health Officials Say They're Ineffective For Omicron; FL Orders 15,000 Antibody Treatments

TAMPA, FL — Despite national health officials insisting that Regeneron antibody treatments are ineffective for people testing positive for the omicron coronavirus variant, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday that the state has ordered and will receive another 15,000 doses of the monoclonal antibody treatment drug.

In September, the White House said it was cutting allocations of the antibody treatments to Florida and six other southern states after discovering these states were monopolizing 70 percent of the federal supply.

A news release issued Friday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration concurred with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that the omicron variant may be resistant to the monoclonal antibody treatments DeSantis has ordered.

The treatments are 100 times more expensive than a COVID-19 vaccination. The federal government pays $3,000 to $5,000 a dose, although they're provided free to the public. Like antibody treatments, COVID-19 vaccines are free to Americans but cost the federal government $32 to $37 per dose.

DeSantis responded to the reduced federal allocation by negotiating a private agreement with GlaxoSmithKline pharmaceuticals to directly purchase thousands of doses of monoclonal antibody treatments for Florida.

On Dec. 28, Florida Surgeon General sent a letter to Xavier Becerra, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, protesting the cuts. The Department of Health and Human Service's then reversed its decision to limit supplies of the widely used Regeneron and Eli Lilly monoclonal antibody treatments to Florida.

With Florida's coronavirus positivity rate at 26.5 percent — with 298,455 new cases from Dec. 24 to 30 — DeSantis said the state needs at least 30,000 more doses of the Regeneron and Eli Lilly treatments per week. He plans to expand capacity at existing state-run monoclonal antibody treatment sites and open new sites, treating 250 to 300 more patients a day at each.

"Prior to the federal government takeover of the monoclonal market, Florida successfully distributed approximately 30,000 doses per week when we managed our own supply," DeSantis said.

"The state has more than $800 million available to quickly deploy monoclonal antibody treatments throughout the state, and the only thing holding us back is the insufficient supply of treatment from the federal government," he said.

The Republican-led Florida Legislature approved an additional $888 million in funding during its special session in October for DeSantis' efforts to expand the availability of the treatments that were successfully used on people infected with the delta variant over the summer who were either unvaccinated or at high-risk of hospitalization or death.

“We will rapidly deploy the 15,000 doses that we have now secured, but the Biden administration is still obstructing the state of Florida’s ability to manage our own supply of monoclonal antibodies, and I will continue to seek additional doses for Floridians,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis said those funds will be used to bypass the federal government and purchase its own supply of monoclonal antibody treatments "once the state is permitted to directly purchase monoclonal antibody treatments from the distributor," DeSantis added.

Kevin Guthrie, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said his agency will help distribute the treatments by managing state trucking and shipping contracts to quickly transport the federal allotment of treatments from federal storage facilities.

He said his team can set up treatment sites within 24 to 48 hours, and is identifying potential sites in Broward, Collier, Duval, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Seminole counties to combat the omicron surge.

“We are willing and eager to offer our assistance and secure these additional doses,” he said. “We know this treatment saves lives, and we want this treatment to be readily available to Floridians who need it the most."

While this may have been true for those with the delta variant, the CDC said the omicron variant now makes up 58.6 percent of cases across the U.S. and 78 percent of the cases in the Southeast, including Florida.

Related story: Experts Say Widely Used Antibody Treatments Useless For Omicron

While the use of the treatments may be advantageous in states where delta is still the prominent variant, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is not recommending its use in Florida and other states where the omicron variant is surging.

Dr. Kami Kim, infectious disease specialist with the University of South Florida, said preventive measures such as vaccinations and booster are key to combating the virus in addition to being less expensive and less complicated to administer than antibody treatments.

"I still think the best thing would be for people to not get COVID in the first place," she said. "Yes, we have something to treat them if they do, but that's not really what you want."

"It does not work for omicron," said Sarasota Memorial Hospital's Dr. Manuel Gardillo Jr. of the popular antibody treatments. "You would not give penicillin to someone with pseudomonas infection in the hospital in the outside chance it might work. Now imagine having to set up a dedicated infusion center in one of our outpatient facilities (ie urgent care centers etc.) inundated with patients with respiratory symptoms and other ailments, and having to use our own stretched-out-to-the-max nursing staff to provide a service of extremely low value (antiviral for an antiviral-resistant infection). It is not political. It is sound medical practice and adequate utilization of scarce resources."

In a news conference this week, President Joe Biden said 35 million American remain unvaccinated.

A new alternative antibody treatment could resolve the concerns regarding the use of antibody treatments. The FDA has given emergency use authorization for a new monoclonal antibody treatment called sotrovimab, recently developed by GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology Inc., that's shown to be effective for patients with the omicron variant.

Although supplies are still limited, the FDA said 55,000 doses of sotrovimab are now being shipped to all states. An additional 300,000 doses of sotrovimab will be available for distribution later in January, the FDA said.