Doctors using experimental drug made from Frankenstein mouse’s blood
DONALD TRUMP is being treated with an experimental cocktail of drugs made from the antibodies of genetically engineered mice and blood taken from Covid-19 survivors.
The US President was given an injection of REGNCOV2 on Friday. The artificial antibody drug, made by US pharmaceutical firm Regeneron, has just started being tested in the UK. An Oxford professor said last night that early indications suggested it was ‘very positive and very potent’.
Trials in the US over the past six months involving 275 patients show the drug drove down the ‘viral load’ of those infected and shortened the duration of the illness. It is not yet available to the public.
Trump’s vital signs are ‘concerning’ and the next 48 hours will be ‘critical’
Mr Trump is also taking a five-day course of Remdesivir, an antiviral drug shown to reduce recovery time in hospital patients from 15 to 11 days and, according to one study, to slash death rates from 11.6 per cent to eight per cent.
With the presidential election looming, Mr Trump – who is also taking zinc, vitamin D, an antacid, melatonin and baby aspirin – sought to reassure the American people about his health last night.
He tweeted: ‘Doctors, Nurses and ALL at the GREAT Walter Reed Medical Center, and others from likewise incredible institutions who have joined them, are AMAZING!!! Tremendous progress has been made over the last 6 months in fighting this PLAGUE. With their help, I am feeling well!’
The tweet came barely 90 minutes after a team of medics, led by White House doctor Sean Conley, stood outside the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland to deliver an upbeat assessment of Mr Trump’s medical progress – but ended up sowing fresh confusion and concern.
‘The team and I are extremely happy with the progress the President has made,’ Dr Conley said, adding that Mr Trump was having no trouble breathing and had been fever-free for more than 24 hours.
Another medic said Mr Trump was walking and working in his suite and had said: ‘I feel like I could walk out of here today.’ However, Dr Conley was evasive when asked if he had needed oxygen. When a reporter asked why Mr Trump needed to be in hospital if he was so well, Dr Conley snapped: ‘Because he is the President.’
But minutes after the press conference ended, reports began to emerge that Mr Trump was less well than his medical team suggested. US media said he needed oxygen at the White House on Friday before being hospitalised.
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said Mr Trump’s vital signs were ‘very concerning’ and the next 48 hours would be critical. Professor Peter Hornby, head of emerging diseases at Oxford University, said British patients in a new trial had started to get REGNCOV2 last week. It was developed using mice genetically modified to have a human immune system that creates virus antibodies which are harvested from their blood.
Professor Hornby said: ‘It’s an artificial antibody, a cocktail of two antibodies, designed so it binds to a protein on the surface of the virus. That helps prevent the virus from attaching to cells, entering the cells and replicating, and it helps our immune system kill the virus.’