President Donald Trump on Wednesday shared a video in which he effusively praised the COVID-19 treatment Regeneron, which is the subject of a clinical trial at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).
“I went in, I wasn’t feeling so hot,” Trump says of his recent stay at Walter Reed Medical Center, where he received treatment after coming down with COVID-19.
“Within a very short period of time, they gave me Regeneron … and other things, too, but I think this was the key,” the president continued.
“It was, like, unbelievable, I felt good immediately,” he said of the treatment.
A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT! pic.twitter.com/uhLIcknAjT
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2020
The treatment to which Trump refers in the video has the scientific name REGN-COV2 and is an antibody cocktail meant to spur an immune response in patients that have recently been diagnosed with the coronavirus.
REGN-COV2 was developed by the company Regeneron. The company’s name has begun to be used as a colloquial term for the treatment itself, which is administered in one intravenous dose.
UAB Hospital is currently conducting a clinical trial of Regeneron and seeking volunteers to accept the treatment.
In a press briefing earlier in the week, a member of UAB’s Division of Infectious Diseases, Dr. Sonia Heath M.D., discussed the Regeneron trial that recently begun at the hospital.
She described it as an “antibody-based trial where we are infusing people with a cocktail of antibodies.”
“You get a combination of two different antibodies proteins on the surface of the virus, and if it can bind to the virus it can help eliminate it,” Heath explained.
The president was also treated with the drug remdesivir, which was discovered at UAB and is now the standard of care for patients hospitalized with COVID-19.
Regeneron, the company, has asked the FDA for an emergency use authorization, which would clear the way for REGN-COV2 to be used outside of clinical trials and compassionate care uses, such as how it was received by the president.
Alabamians interested in joining the Regeneron study, or any other ongoing COVID-19 study at UAB, can call 205-934-6777.
Henry Thornton is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him by email: [email protected] or on Twitter @HenryThornton95
