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Antibody therapies could be a bridge to a coronavirus vaccine — but will the world benefit?

Monoclonal antibodies are complex and expensive to produce, meaning poor countries might be priced out.
  1. Heidi Ledford
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As the race to develop a vaccine against COVID-19 rages on, some researchers are focused on a short-term way to treat people with the disease: monoclonal antibodies. Rather than wait for vaccines to coax the body to make its own antibodies, these scientists want to inject designer versions of these molecules to directly disable the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. But mass-produced antibodies, routinely used to treat diseases such as cancer, are complex to manufacture and come with a hefty price tag. That risks placing them beyond the reach of poor countries.

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Nature 584, 333-334 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-02360-y

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 12 August 2020: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that the median price for antibody therapies in the United States is US$15,000–$200,000 per treatment. In fact, this is the cost per year of treatment.

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