Clinical and epidemiological benefits of early treatment and prophylaxis for COVID-19
Monday, October 18th, 2021
9 AM PDT / 12 EDT / 6 PM CEST
Overview
The incentive structure for being contact traced recently changed dramatically.
Contact tracing traditionally uses quarantine to stop the spread of infectious disease, but at substantial financial, logistical, educational, and social costs. Today, fully vaccinated contacts are no longer required to quarantine in the U.S. and many other countries, but are asked merely to get tested and monitor symptoms. Being traced thus makes early diagnosis of COVID-19 more likely, and with it, earlier treatment that might be more effective. Indeed, post-exposure prophylactic treatment can prevent an initial infection event from progressing to COVID-19 symptoms, preventing both individual disease and community spread. This panel will feature two speakers, one describing the clinical data on post-exposure prophylaxis with monoclonal antibodies against COVID-19, the other its epidemiological consequences.
Agenda
COVID-19 Prevention and Early Treatment with Subcutaneous Administration of the Monoclonal Antibodies Casirivimab + Imdevimab
Meagan O’Brien, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, will discuss the clinical data on post-exposure prophylaxis with monoclonal antibodies against COVID-19....
As a complement to vaccines, antiviral treatments with more convenient routes of administration are needed for immediate protection to prevent COVID-19 and to reduce viral carriage. We evaluated the efficacy and safety of subcutaneous casirivimab and imdevimab antibody combination (REGEN-COV) to prevent COVID-19 in household contacts of individuals with COVID-19 in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 study, including participants who were both SARS-CoV-2 RT-qPCR-negative and -positive at baseline. Subcutaneous REGEN-COV 1200mg prevented symptomatic COVID-19 and reduced the duration of high viral load and symptoms. REGEN-COV is now authorized for emergency use in the US, among other countries, for outpatient treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 and for post-exposure prophylaxis in certain high-risk individuals.
Health Impact and Cost of COVID-19 Post-Exposure Prophylaxis within Households
Jennifer Ross, University of Washington, will discuss the epidemiological consequences of post-exposure prophylaxis with monoclonal antibodies.
Background: We aimed to estimate the impact and health system cost of implementing post-exposure prophylaxis against household exposure to COVID-19 with monoclonal antibodies.
Methods: We developed a decision-analytical model analysis of results from a recent randomized controlled trial with complementary data on household demographic structure, vaccine coverage, and COVID-19 confirmed case counts for the representative month of May, 2021.
Results: In a month of similar intensity to May, 2021, in the USA, a monoclonal antibody post-exposure prophylaxis program reaching 50% of exposed unvaccinated household members aged 50+, would avert 1,813 (1,171 – 2,456) symptomatic infections, 526 (343 - 716) hospitalizations, and 83 (56 - 116) deaths. Assuming the unit cost of administering the intervention was US$ 1,264, this program would save the health system US$ 3,055,202 (-14,034,632 - 18,787,692).
Conclusions: Currently in the United States, health system and public health actors have an opportunity to improve health and reduce costs through COVID-19 post-exposure prophylaxis with monoclonal antibodies. Read more
Co-hosted with The Big Data Institute at
The University of Oxford
Meet the Speakers

MODERATOR
Joanna Masel, PhD
Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona; Head of Science, WeHealth
Joanna Masel is a mathematical modeler and data scientist. Her research before the pandemic was primarily in evolutionary biology, but she has also ... published in fields as diverse as biochemistry, infectious disease, economics, and education. She teaches Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of Arizona and designed the risk scoring system for the Covid Watch exposure notification app and the WeHealth platform. Read more

SPEAKER
Meagan O’Brien
Senior Director of Early Clinical Development and Clinical Experimental Sciences, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals
Meagan O'Brien is a Senior Director of Early Clinical Development and Clinical Experimental Sciences at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. Dr. O'Brien ... received her medical degree from Harvard Medical School and completed medical residency and a fellowship in infectious diseases in New York City at Columbia Presbyterian and New York University Medical Schools. Dr. O'Brien's NIH-sponsored basic science, translational, and clinical academic research focused on innate immune dysregulation by chronic viral infections and chronic inflammation in HIV infection. Dr. O'Brien joined Regeneron in 2017 to work in Early Clinical development, with a focus on allergy and immunology, infectious diseases, and rare diseases. Read more

SPEAKER
Jennifer Ross
Infectious Disease Physician-Researcher, University of Washington
Jennifer Ross, MD, MPH is Acting Assistant Professor in the Departments of Global Health and Medicine (Infectious Diseases) at the University of Washington and a staff physician at the Seattle... VA Medical Center. Her research based at the International Clinical Research Center (ICRC) uses infectious disease epidemiology and modeling to improve efficiency of infection prevention strategies and inform policy. She is principal investigator of a career development (K01) award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and an award from the UW Center for AIDS Research to prioritize strategies for HIV/TB prevention in Uganda and other high-burden settings. Additionally, she studies COVID-19 epidemiology as co-chair of the EPIC3 study in the Veterans Health Administration. Dr. Ross completed clinical training at the University of California, San Francisco (Internal Medicine) and the University of Washington (Infectious Diseases). She was a National Institutes of Health Fogarty Global Health Research Fellow in Uganda and was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Read more
Coordinating Committee Co-Chairs
Joanna Masel, PhD
Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at The University of Arizona
Luca Ferretti, PhD
Senior Researcher in Statistical Genetics and Pathogen DynamicsBig Data Institute, The University of Oxford
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