CUMBERLAND, Ind. — The experimental coronavirus treatment being given President Donald Trump is also being given to Hoosiers in central Indiana.
Ascension St. Vincent is one of the top enrollers in the Regeneron trial.
President Trump received the treatment while being hospitalized at Walter Reed Military Medical Center after testing positive for COVID-19.
“The way he was treated is exactly what we are doing here in central Indiana,” said Dr. Mark Bochan, the chairman of infectious disease at Ascension St. Vincent.
Currently, Ascension St. Vincent is the only hospital in Indiana participating in the trial.
The antibody treatment hasn't been FDA-approved yet, but leaders at Regeneron hope the study will receive emergency use approval.
Bochan said compared to other experimental treatment, the Regeneron trial is more consistent.
“It is engineered to be specific to a very small piece of the virus, and that’s what makes it so unique, is it hits it right where it counts,” he said.
Ascension St. Vincent started enrolling patients in the trial in April. They now have 15 people.
Bochan said the treatment is helpful but said it is hard to know for sure until the trial ends, since some of the patients receive the treatment and others receive a placebo.
“We definitely have anecdotal cases of people receiving the product and in one case, they actually went home the next day,” he said.
The treatment is being used on people with a variety of COVID-19 symptoms.
“The one thing that seems to be a pervasive theme in all of this is the sooner you identify the problem and get them on some type of treatment, the better the body does,” Bochan said.
Regeneron isn’t the only company developing antibody drugs. Eli Lilly in Indianapolis and GlaxoSmithKline are also testing potential COVID-19 treatments.