SC reports shortage of highly effective COVID-19 antibody treatment

Less than a week after Gov. Henry McMaster and state health officials touted the effectiveness — and availability — of monoclonal antibodies for treating COVID-19, South Carolina is facing a shortage of the promising therapy.

The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control said Thursday federal officials had informed them the state would receive only about one-third of the 13,000 monoclonal antibody doses providers had ordered for next week due to a national shortage of the increasingly sought after drugs.

As a result, DHEC will be forced to ration monoclonal antibody doses, which are used to treat patients with mild to moderate cases of COVID-19 before their disease progresses, much like the agency did with vaccines when their supply was limited.

In an email DHEC Director Edward Simmer sent Senate President Harvey Peeler, R-Cherokee, and others Wednesday, he said the federal government would begin to distribute monoclonal antibody doses to states based on their number of new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, as well as monoclonal antibody inventory and use data.

Rather than individual hospitals requesting the doses directly from the manufacturer, as they have done up to this point, DHEC will now be tasked with determining what facilities will receive the monoclonal antibodies flowing into the state.

State health officials will allocate the drugs to providers based on their utilization rates and other factors, the agency said in a statement.

“Given the limited supply and potential delay in shipments, it is possible we may not be able to accommodate all patients who could benefit,” Simmer wrote in his letter to Peeler. “We will work with facilities to try to direct patients to those facilities who have monoclonal antibodies available to maximize the number who can benefit.”

Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, said lawmakers got word Wednesday that all of the state’s standing orders of monoclonal antibodies had been canceled due to a lack of supply at the federal level.

The South Carolina Hospital Association briefed state leaders about the shortage Wednesday, relaying that monoclonal antibody providers had not received shipments since late August and disclosing that providers lacked the supply to treat all those currently approved for treatment, Hutto said.

“They’ve been so remarkably effective that they can’t produce them fast enough for the people that need them nationwide,” he said. “We just don’t have enough doses in South Carolina to take care of even the current people diagnosed, much less anybody who might become COVID-positive today or tomorrow.”

Schipp Ames, a spokesman for the S.C. Hospital Association, said the organization had been communicating with state health officials daily as it attempts to work out a new monoclonal antibody allocation process and secure more of the critical treatments for hospitals.

“Our hospitals consider the monoclonal antibody therapy a valuable tool in our fight against COVID-19 and we will continue to advocate to have the resources needed to protect patients and communities,” Ames said.

What are monoclonal antibodies?

Monoclonal antibody therapy was authorized for emergency use in COVID-19 patients last November and is considered highly effective if given within 10 days after symptoms appear.

Gov. Henry McMaster and former President Donald Trump received monoclonal antibody infusions after catching COVID-19 last year.

The treatments, which are given through intravenous infusion or injection, are approved for people 12 and older who recently tested positive for or were exposed to COVID-19 and are considered at high risk of developing severe complications from the virus.

They’re effective at preventing people with mild to moderate COVID-19 symptoms from deteriorating and requiring hospitalization, but are not approved for use in people who already are hospitalized or have received oxygen to assist with normal breathing.

As of Sept. 1, more than 16,000 COVID-19 patients in South Carolina had been treated with monoclonal antibodies, according to DHEC.

The therapy, which is offered by more than 50 health care providers across the state, is estimated to have prevented 2,000 hospitalizations and 200 deaths in South Carolina, the agency said.

Monoclonal antibody use on the rise in SC

Demand for monoclonal antibody treatment has soared recently due to the nationwide surge in COVID-19 cases and the therapy’s growing popularity among vaccine skeptics who view it as an alternative to rolling up their sleeves.

State health officials advise that vaccines remain the most effective first line of defense against the coronavirus and said monoclonal antibodies, while beneficial, should not be viewed as an alternative to vaccination.

A Senate legislative panel is looking into therapeutic options for treating COVID-19, including expanding the use of monoclonal antibodies in South Carolina. Members of the public, including multiple vaccine skeptics, and several conservative Upstate lawmakers, including Reps. Stewart Jones, R-Laurens, and Ashley Trantham, R-Greenville, testified before the committee Wednesday.

Trantham was among a group of Upstate legislators who recently sent McMaster a letter urging him to set up free monoclonal antibody drop-in centers across the state where people infected with COVID could come for treatment, the Greenvile News reported.

Establishing these free sites could help prevent the deaths of people like former Greenville County GOP leader Pressley Stutts, who died in August after a long battle with COVID-19, the lawmakers said. Stutts’ son testified before the Senate panel Wednesday.

Hutto, the Orangeburg senator, said he’s seen discussion of monoclonal antibody treatments take off on social media among people opposed to vaccination and fears more South Carolinians may delay shots thinking they can request antibodies if they get COVID, only to find the treatment unavailable.

The antibody treatment is great, Hutto said, but it only helps an individual alleviate their own COVID symptoms. Vaccination, on the other hand, protects not only the vaccine recipient but others they come in contact with.

“Vaccines are an unselfish way of trying to protect everybody,” he said.