Posted on 09/24/2021 8:52:50 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) — Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday that the state has begun purchasing doses of a monoclonal antibody treatment directly from the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, after the federal government last week took control of distribution of the COVID-19 treatments produced by other companies.
DeSantis said the first purchase was for 3,000 doses of the drug sotrovimab, which was given emergency-use authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in May.
The governor said last week that he would pursue a direct-purchasing agreement with GlaxoSmithKline, as the state is unable to directly buy doses of Regeneron’s monoclonal antibody treatment.
Monoclonal antibodies are man-made proteins that act like human antibodies in the immune system. The treatment provides a temporary, but immediate boost to the immune system which can help reduce chances that a patient will develop serious complications.
DeSantis in recent months has touted the Regeneron treatment as being effective for patients with COVID-19 symptoms and set up 25 sites to administer it.
The Regeneron treatment is purchased exclusively by the federal government. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Sept. 13 announced that it “transitioned from a direct ordering process to a state/territory-coordinated distribution system” and will decide the apportionment of treatments that states receive.
“To put it in perspective, the most recent shipment that we’re scheduled to receive for the entire state of Florida is a little less than 18,000 doses of Regeneron. Our state sites just a few weeks ago were doing well over 30,000 doses just in our sites, that doesn’t even include any of the hospitals,” DeSantis said Thursday during a news conference in Tampa.
Meanwhile, DeSantis said the future of some state-run monoclonal antibody sites may be in jeopardy.
“We may have to be making decisions soon about how many of the sites can remain open. We’re making decisions about how many doses each hospital is going to get. And these are not decisions we should be having to make,” DeSantis said.
China will order the CDC to revoke the emergency use authorization.
Florida’s @GovRonDeSantis not happy with @POTUS’ decision to take over distribution of monoclonal antibodies. Statement from DeSantis press sec @ChristinaPushaw below.
pic.twitter.com/1ksYdwSvPG
— Forrest Saunders (@FBSaunders) September 15, 2021
DeSantis said that he had obtained 3,000 doses of sotrovimab, a single-dose monoclonal antibody, which has emergency use approval and that it has even better numbers than Regeneron.
When you consider that the Biden team has leveled all kinds of attacks against DeSantis over his handling of the virus, it isn’t he who is cutting treatments that can help the citizens of Florida — it’s the Biden administration. It shows the Biden team cares more about politics than they do about taking care of the Americans who need help. It’s DeSantis, coming through for the people, to actually provide the treatment that is needed.
Weird how Corporate Medicine and Big Pharma are blocking all the exits...
I see several ways Biden could shaft DeSantis beyond what he has already done. One would be to yank the EUA for sotrovimab for reasons of faulty testing processes. Or he could require Glaxo-Smith-Kline to sell it only to the federal government. And there are other means that we would expect from the string pullers in the White House (Yes, Obama, that’s you). Anything to screw up how DeSantis handles this thing and thereby damage his 2024 run. The lives don’t matter, the damage to DeSantis is all that counts.
A potential line of counterattack is to state that the Delta variant is having a huge impact on minorities and in particular the black population. The treatment required is Regeneron, which the feds are withholding from Florida. So Biden is choosing to kill blacks for his political purposes.
Another swipe at Biden can be that maybe the withholding of Regeneron is reasonable as the administration figures that if we lose 10-15,000 black voters that is okay because we just imported their replacements from Haiti.
It must be working. In the last month or so, the death rate in Florida has been consistently between 3 and 11. This is according to the Worldometer numbers. Can’t believe more states aren’t doing what Florida is doing.
I thought Regeneron was causing kidney failure. Maybe I have it mixed up with a different MAB.
RE: I thought Regeneron was causing kidney failure.
You might be confusing Regeneron with Remdesivir.
See here:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33340409/
and here:
I was. You are correct. It’s late and been a long week. My 24-27 YO 3 kids all got the rona this week. One was vaccinated. He made his own decision on that and I respect that. He still has the rona.
They all live together in the house the oldest owns. 2 BS degrees, 1 masters, 1 masters almost complete in accounting. The UPS driver makes the most and owns the house. Charges the other 2 nothing while they try to build some savings.
I am so proud and fortunate that the 3 are doing well. Very proud. Hate they got sick but building that natural immunity is good.
Anyway - I’m being a proud dad but thanks for correcting me. (That’s odd for FR).
Take care.
Make sure you keep in touch with the kids. Physically look in on them to make sure they are okay. My son kept saying he was fine but he wasn’t. I’d drop stuff of at his door and talk through the window. Although I guess with the three of them there they can keep an eye on each other. But - all being fairly young and on their own they probably figure they can handle it when they may not be able to.
He almost didn’t make it he waited so long to get to the ER. That was about on day 6 after coming down with symptoms when he went in (girlfriend recovering from covid saw him up close and called us and we convinced them to go to the ER).
In your face, Biden! Yeah!
Thanks. Took dinner over tonight. Took the groceries yesterday. They worry about me. Lol. You are correct, need to keep an eye on them
DeSantis needs to get out in front of this accusing Biden and his team of killing elderly with denial of medications. Say it loud and often
He does. (Not that the press would report it…). Also, I wonder if there’s some way Florida could sue the Feds for their politically motivated discriminatory treatment of the state.
No that remdesivir.
He can tie them up in court with personal as well as institutional lawsuits
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