SEATTLE — Swedish Medical Center and UW Medicine are involved in trials of Regeneron Pharmaceutical's experimental antibody drug, which was administered to President Donald Trump as part of his treatment for coronavirus.
The experimental antibody drug given to Trump has been called one of the most promising approaches to preventing serious illness from a COVID-19 infection. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals said it gave a single dose of the drug under compassionate use provisions.
Antibodies are proteins the body makes to help clear a virus. The drug is a concentrated version of two antibodies that worked best in lab tests.
Trump was given the drug before he was taken to a military hospital as a precaution.
UW Medicine is running a trial for those who have not already been infected, but who have been exposed, to find out if the drug can prevent people from getting coronavirus.
Swedish is also testing the drug on patients who already have COVID-19 to see if the drug can slow symptoms.