Sunshine Sentinel

Gov. DeSantis recently announced that Florida had purchased 3,000 doses of monoclonal antibody therapies for distribution in the state, following the Biden administration's decision to impose restrictions on states' access to COVID-19 antibody treatments.

DeSantis said Florida had purchased the doses directly from GlaxoSmithKline, one of the companies that manufacture the monoclonal antibody treatment, 

“Just a few weeks ago, we were doing well over 30,000 doses just in our sites," DeSantis stated in response to the Biden administration's decision to reduce Florida's doses, "That doesn’t even include any of the hospitals. So not only have  they cut dramatically from what we were using, they’re now saying, this is also what the hospitals get as well."

FOX 13 reported the federal government had reduced the number of monoclonal antibody treatments entering the state by more than 50%.

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki claimed that the federal government's distribution strategy is intended to promote equity among the states that receive them, according to a report by ClickOrlando.

“Just seven states are making up 70% of the orders. Our supply is not unlimited, and we believe it should be equitable across states,” Psaki said. "The federal government won't be giving a greater percentage of the monoclonal antibodies to Florida over Oklahoma."

The Biden Administration had been distributing antibody therapies to states as required until early August, when it advised Southern states to seek more treatments in response to the recent COVID-19 Delta-variant spike, according to a Politico report.

However, demand for these treatments has risen significantly in a number of Southern states since early August, leading authorities to worry that they were consuming an inordinate amount of the national supply.

John Couris, the CEO of Tampa General Hospital, questioned during Florida House Pandemics and Public Emergencies Committee meeting, why the  Biden administration altered the shipment of monoclonal antibody dosages.

“I don’t know why they did it, because the supply chain was working perfectly the way it was,”  Couris said during the meeting. “This change is going to hurt people in Florida. It’s  already starting to make us, for example, think about how we are going  to have to limit the hours of operations associated with our ability to  provide this life-saving therapy.”

Additionally, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals has announced that the U.S. has signed with the company for an additional 1.4 million doses of its monoclonal antibody treatment, bringing the total number of doses to 3 million, according to a US News report.

The U.S. will pay Regeneron $2,100 per dose for a total of $2.94 billion; the government will also distribute the treatment free of charge to patients.

Regeneron will provide the extra dosages between now and the end of January 2022.