“Monoclonal products are underused in France”, regrets Jean-François Delfraissy

“Monoclonal products are underused in France”, regrets Jean-François Delfraissy, President of the Scientific Council, Wednesday November 17 on France Inter. The European Medicines Agency approved two treatments with monoclonal antibodies last week. These are Ronapreve, from the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche, and Regkirona, from the South Korean company Celltrion.

“We have only had a few thousand people treated with monoclonal drugs in France since March 2021. It is insufficient. France is late”, he laments. Monoclonal, “These are the productions of antibodies produced in the laboratories that you are injected and which make it possible to have an activity against the virus. These monoclonal agents are used in immunocompromised people, in transplant patients, in patients who have had cancer. And there, they are more or less well used “, explains the president of the Scientific Council. On the other hand, “they are very badly and insufficiently used in people who have a Covid”.

People over 65 and people at risk, vaccinated or not, must be tested in the event of symptoms, explains Jean-François Delfraissy. And “if you are tested positive, you have the right to have access to these monoclonal antibodies which make it possible to reduce the occurrence of transition to a severe form or a severe form of the order of about 70%”.

Next, “from the beginning of 2022”, therefore in January, the French concerned will be able to take oral medication for four days. “Obviously, it will be much easier”, he underlines, while for the monoclonal, “you need a two-hour hospital stay to inject them into your veins”. In these monoclonal treatments, speed is crucial. The treatment should be administered within five days of the onset of the first symptoms, which should not be serious.