Sarasota Memorial Hospital is expanding community access to a multi-national clinical trial that is testing a new dual-action antibody cocktail to treat COVID-19. Two weeks ago, SMH became the first hospital in Florida to enroll hospitalized patients in Regeneron Pharmaceuticals’ experimental treatment (REGN-COV2) for COVID-19.

This week, SMH opened the trial to people who have been infected with the novel coronavirus but aren’t sick enough to be hospitalized.

“We’re very excited about this trial, which involves the first antiviral antibody cocktail specifically designed to attack a critical part of the coronavirus, the spike protein that attaches to human cells,” said Manuel Gordillo, MD, medical director of Sarasota Memorial’s Infection Prevention and Control Department and principal investigator for the Sarasota trial. “In early laboratory tests, it completely obliterated the coronavirus at relatively low concentrations.”

In the past two weeks, SMH has enrolled 19 hospitalized patients, and enrolled its first outpatient on Monday. If the cocktail proves effective, the treatment may lessen the severity of the disease in people battling COVID-19, reducing hospitalizations and complications, and ultimately may help stop the spread of the virus in the community, Dr. Gordillo said.

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