COVID-19 Guidance About Monoclonal Antibodies Arkansas Department of Health

COVID-19 Guidance About Monoclonal Antibodies

In November, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an Emergency Use Authorization to allow the use of monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of mild to moderate symptoms of COVID-19 in adults and pediatric patients.

What are monoclonal antibodies?

Monoclonal antibodies are laboratory-made proteins that mimic your immune system’s ability to fight off harmful viruses. Bamlanivimab and casirivimab + imdevimab are monoclonal antibodies that are specifically designed to protect against the spike protein of COVID-19. These proteins are designed to stop the virus from entering the human cells.

Who can get this treatment?

Non-hospitalized patients with mild to moderate symptoms with less than 10 days since symptom onset & high-risk factors including:

Age >65 years, or >55 years and 12-17 years with:
- Obesity with BMI >35 (adults)
- High-risk conditions including diabetes, chronic kidney disease, coronary artery disease, hypertension and others

These medications are NOT approved for use in patients who are hospitalized due to COVID-19 or require oxygen therapy. Benefits of treatment have not been observed in patients hospitalized due to COVID-19. Monoclonal antibodies may be associated with worse clinical outcomes when given to patients with COVID-19 requiring oxygen ventilation. Individual administration sites may have additional criteria for use of these monoclonal antibody therapies in patients.

These medications will be available at no cost to patients, although health care facilities may charge for administering the medicine.