Officials set Florida’s weekly supply of monoclonal antibody treatments to 30,950 doses.
The Biden administration is capping the supply of a COVID-19 treatment heavily promoted by Gov. Ron DeSantis as demand soars in states hit hard by the delta surge.
DeSantis has opened 25 clinics across the state that provide Regeneron’s antibody cocktail at no cost to patients, but state officials are concerned about new supply limits implemented this week by the federal government, said Christina Pushaw, the governor’s spokesperson.
Federal health officials are setting Florida’s weekly supply of monoclonal antibody treatments at 30,950 doses, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Florida’s state clinics and private providers have been ordering about 72,000 doses a week, Pushaw said. About 36,000 doses are required weekly to supply the state clinics, she said.
“We didn’t get any notice or time to prepare for this — neither did any providers in Florida,” Pushaw said. “We were blindsided by this and the deficit is pretty significant, but it is the governor’s priority to make sure we fill that gap.”
Health care providers and states are no longer able to order the drug from the federal government. Instead, states will get a weekly allotment based on infection and hospitalization rates.
Federal officials say they have seen a 20-fold increase in orders for the treatment since mid-July with just seven states accounting for 70% of shipments.
Those states are Alabama, Florida, Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia and Louisiana, the Washington Post reported. With the exception of Florida, all those states have vaccination rates below the national average. (About 64% of eligible Floridians are fully vaccinated, which is in line with the national average, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.)
Antibody treatment has been embraced by both President Joe Biden and DeSantis as an effective way to keep people sick with COVID-19 out of the hospital. Studies have shown that the treatment can reduce the hospitalization risk by as much as 70% if taken early.
DeSantis opened the first antibody treatment clinic on Aug. 12 in Jacksonville. More than 90,000 doses have been administered in Florida since then, Pushaw said.
Under Biden’s COVID-19 plan, total weekly shipments of monoclonal antibody treatments will increase from 100,000 to 150,000, federal officials say.
“This system will help maintain equitable distribution, both geographically and temporally, across the country — providing states and territories with consistent, fairly-distributed supply over the coming weeks,” a statement from Health and Human Services read.
Florida is getting the most doses from the federal government, according to a breakdown. Texas comes in second with an allotment of 23,640 doses.
The drug isn’t cheap, costing about $2,100 per dose for Regeneron’s antibody cocktail. The federal government is purchasing 1.4 million additional doses from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, bringing the total number purchased to nearly 3 million. The latest deal announced on Tuesday is worth $2.9 billion.
Those doses will begin arriving this month with the vast majority being delivered by the end of the year, according to a company statement. Florida doesn’t anticipate closing any of its clinics, and the governor is weighing options for securing additional drugs, including acquiring an antibody treatment produced by GlaxoSmithKline, Pushaw said.
sswisher@orlandosentinel.com