The COVID-19 experience, along with lingering manufacturing and delivery concerns, is prompting a harder look at the future of antibody-based treatment and prevention for infectious diseases.
The COVID-19 pandemic was the first time monoclonal antibody-based therapies were produced in mass quantities to combat an infectious disease. Clinics administered hundreds of thousands of antibody infusions and injections over the first two years of the pandemic with the aim of staving off the worst outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
It worked — at least in wealthier countries where these products were available — until it didn’t. The virus’s rapid evolution meant the antibodies were quickly outpaced.
This experience, along with other issues, has researchers assessing the future of antibody therapies for treating or preventing infectious diseases, including some of the most complicated pathogens such as HIV and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. “We are in the position that if you want more antibodies for infectious disease, you need to be very cautious,” says Rino Rappuoli, scientific director of the Biotecnopolo di Siena Foundation in Italy.
Read the full IAVI report here.
SEE ALSO:
Source : IAVI
Related HIV and Co-Infections News
Get involved
Are you living with HIV/AIDS? Are you part of a community affected by HIV/AIDS and co-infections? Do you work or volunteer in the field? Are you motivated by our cause and interested to support our work?
Subscribe
Stay in the loop and get all the important EATG updates in your inbox with the EATG newsletter. The HIV & co-infections bulletin is your source of handpicked news from the field arriving regularly to your inbox.