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BACK: Donald Trump gave a greeting when he returned to the White House on Monday. Photo: Alex Brandon / AP
In a new greeting video, Trump thanks his illness for testing Regeneron’s experimental drug. The US President has owned shares in the company and has known the boss for several years.
When US President Donald Trump was admitted to Walter Reed Hospital, he was administered several medications, including a high dose of Regeneron’s experimental anti-virus cocktail.
In hindsight, the drug company has seen a significant rally in the stock market: On Monday, the stock was up 7 percent. According to CNN, it peaked when Trump tweeted that he would be leaving the hospital on Monday night. From Monday to Tuesday, stocks fell again, before rising sharply again on Wednesday, following a new video greeting from the US president.
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Standing in front of the White House on Wednesday, Trump brags about the experimental drug, which he will now have given away for free to coronary Americans.
– Hello, maybe you recognize me, he is your favorite president, he begins his greeting, before saying that he quickly felt better after being admitted to the Walter Reed hospital with Covid-19.
– I want everyone to receive the same treatment as their president, because I feel great, perfect. I think it was a blessing from God that I got it, a blessing in disguise, says the president, who says he wouldn’t have tried the drug if he hadn’t gotten sick.
– I call him priest, go on.
According to New York Times This is the first time that the American president has acknowledged that he has received treatment that is not available to the man on the street.
Meet the head of the company
At the same time, Donald Trump has several ties to Regeneron, who is behind the experimental cocktail: he has known the head of the company for many years, according to CNN and the New York Times. The company’s CEO, Leonard Schleifer, has been a member of the Trump Golf Club in Westchester.
“Len and President Trump have known each other since they both lived in the Westchester area for many years, but have not had regular contact until this year, where they have occasionally discussed Covid-19 related issues,” Regeneron said in a statement to CNN. . .
Regeneron received $ 450 million in public funds in July as part of “Operation Warp Speed,” a plan to rapidly develop a vaccine or treatments for Covid-19.
Trump recently owned shares in the company, write CNN and USA Today. He also owned shares in Gilead Sciences, the maker of Remdesivir that Trump also takes over. Both pieces of information appeared in the form of Trump’s financial information from 2017.
In recent years, the two companies have not been on the list.
Experimental treatment
There are no approved drugs for Covid-19, but the Regeneron treatment is one of the most promising candidates alongside another antibody treatment developed by the Eli Lilly company, writes The New York Times.
The head of the company, Leonard Schleifer, told the newspaper that Trump’s medical team contacted him and asked for permission to use the drug, and that it was approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration).
SJEF: Leonard Schleifer i Regeneron Photo: AP
Regeneron’s treatment consists of a cocktail of antibodies against Covid-19. Antibodies are intended to mimic the antibodies that the body itself produces to fight disease.
The drug is made by extracting antibodies from infected people and then synthetically reproducing them. Regeneron emphasizes on his website that the drug is being tested.
Science magazine writes that no major concerns have been revealed regarding the antibody cocktail Trump received. At the same time, they write that experiments have shown that the treatment only worked for those who previously did not have antibodies in the body, and that it also worked better for those who had higher levels of the virus. It has not been announced whether Trump meets these criteria.
Rikshospitalet anesthesiologist Jon Henrik Laake told VG on Monday that he expects the use of the experimental drugs in the president’s treatment to be carried out as part of a scientific study.
– If not, it will be strange and not sober that you get so strange in the treatment, said Laake, who has participated in a work with the guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO) on the steroid dexamethasone, which has also received Trump.
More drugs
According to his own medical team, President Donald Trump received the following medical treatment:
- Remdesivir: an antiviral medicine that makes it difficult for the virus to reproduce.
- Dexamethasone: an anti-inflammatory steroid that can reduce mortality in seriously ill patients.
- An experimental “cocktail” of various antibodies: the drug has been developed by the American pharmaceutical company Regeneron and will help the immune system fight the virus.
The cocktail has a documented effect on those who did not have the virus before starting, unlike Trump, who only started the drug after becoming infected. - Vitamin D, zinc, melatonin, aspirin, and famotidine – Various medications with no documented effect in treating Covid-19
- Supply of oxygen on at least one occasion
