A renowned scientist believes he may have found a treatment for coronavirus. Dr. Jacob Glanville, a Bay Area doctor who was featured on the Netflix series Pandemic, announced on Monday that his tireless work may have led to one.
“We are happy to announce we have completed the engineering and we have some very potent antibodies that can be effective against the virus,” Dr. Ganville said. His work was discussed on Wednesday at the now-daily White House press conferences. Dr. Anthony Fauci, who’s been looked upon to deliver the most clear, concise facts about the pandemic, said the science was well-established and supported the concept. Ganville himself sat down for an interview with CBS8 to discuss the nature of his findings, and how they could be used to help irradicate the virus.
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The doctor describes his method, which draws from the series of five antibodies that helped neutralize SARS. In the lab, they were able to “evolve” those antibodies so they could recognize COVID-19. He went on to say that each of the five antibodies reacted successfully, “so we have a pretty powerful tool chest available to us right now to produce a final therapeutic.”
“We think we will be able to deliver it as a shot,” Glanville said when asked about how the treatment would be potentially delivered. “We’ve been deliberately trying to engineer extremely potent antibodies because if they’re potent you need less material and then you could give it as an injection.”
The doctor added that he’s been in contact with both the European Commission as well as the U.S. government to determine when and how to conduct the necessary trial studies. After samples are sent to the military for confirmation testing, his team has partnered up with two major pharmaceutical firms to ramp up production for trials sometime over the summer.
“Pending good results, [if] we see the drug is safe and helpful means we could start releasing it for compassionate use in September,” Ganville added.
According to the latest numbers from Johns Hopkins University, there are 213,372 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S., with 4,757 deaths and 8,474 recoveries. In an effort to slow the spread of coronavirus, President Donald Trump on Sunday extended the social distancing guidelines through April 30.
“The better you do, the faster this whole nightmare will end,” he told reporters at the time.
