Sorrento Therapeutics, a California-based biopharmaceutical company, says it may have found a way to eradicate the coronavirus.
Sorrento announced it has found an antibody that could protect the body from the coronavirus and eliminate it from a person within four days, Fox News reports.
Fox News said the company is expected to formally announce its discovery of the STI-1499 antibody, which they say can provide "100% inhibition" of COVID-19, on Friday.
Sorrento officials say its treatment could be available months before a vaccine is ready.
"We want to emphasize there is a cure. There is a solution that works 100 percent," the company's founder and CEO Dr. Henry Ji told Fox. "If we have the neutralizing antibody in your body, you don't need the social distancing. You can open up a society without fear.”
Scientists have been turning to antibodies to find a treatment or vaccine for the virus. Sorrento scientists think they have identified the right one.
Sorrento tested billions of antibodies it collected over the past decade. Researchers narrowed down testing until they found one antibody that would block the virus from infecting health cells. The antibody is STI-1499.
"When the antibody prevents a virus from entering a human cell, the virus cannot survive," Dr. Ji said. "If they cannot get into the cell, they cannot replicate. So it means that if we prevent the virus from getting the cell, the virus eventually dies out. The body clears out that virus.”
Dr. Ji told Fox News the antibody can be used as a preventative treatment because there are no side effects. He said it may be more effective than a vaccine.
"This is the best solution," he said. "The point of making a vaccine is to generalize a neutralizing antibody. So, if you already have one, you don't need to the body to generate one from a vaccine. You've already provided it. You're cutting out the middleman.”
The company is looking to develop the antibody as a therapy for coronavirus.
In a statement to Fox News, Sorrento said it can provide up to 200,000 doses per month and is looking to produce tens of millions more to meet projected demands.
"As soon as it is infused, that patient is now immune to the disease," senior vice president of Sorrento Dr. Mark Brunswick told Fox News. "For the length of time, the antibody is in that system. So, if we were approved [by the FDA] today, everyone who gets that antibody can go back to work and have no fear of catching COVID-19."
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