CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — According to the Texas Department of State Health Services the federal government made the decision to ration the COVID-19 therapy drug Regeneron due to a high demand and short supply across the nation.
Dr. Kim Onufrak with the Corpus Christi-Nueces County Health Department said that, while the trend is concerning, if we were to experience a shortage here in the Coastal Bend there are other avenues to get patients the antibody cocktail.
"We did get notice from DSHS that they are going to start rationing, so we might not see the volume of Regeneron we were getting before,” Onufrak said. “We do not see that shortage now. Currently we have enough on hand to take care of everybody here."
According to Onufrak, there are other antibodies available to the public.
"REGEN-COV is not the only monoclonal antibody out there,” Onufrak said. “There are two others. If we happen to run out, we have started to order the two medicines separately. We would just have to mix them ourselves."
Additionally, Onufrak said they used to see 150 patients a day receiving the antibody therapy. However, numbers are starting to slow, which means there might not be as much of a need for Regeneron in the Coastal Bend.
"Maybe not completely but the need for our clinic to have a mass rapid infusion center at the Memorial site might go away, and then we may just allow the State to take over in Robstown,” Onufrak said.