FDA Limits Use of Two COVID Antibody Treatments

MONDAY, Jan. 24, 2022 (healthDay News) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Monday that it will curtail the use of two monoclonal antibody treatments that do not appear to work against the highly contagious Omicron variant.

The combo treatments bamlanivimab/etesevimab and casirivimab/imdevimab, made by Eli Lilly and Regeneron, respectively, performed well against earlier variants, but only a third antibody therapy made by GlaxoSmithKline has stayed strong against Omicron.

Last week, the National Institutes of Health updated its guidelines to advise clinics against using the first two treatments on patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 due to their diminished effectiveness.