Monoclonal antibodies can be as effective as vaccines. If they can be given intramuscularly and have a long half life (like Evusheld, ~2 months), they can act as prophylactic that needs a booster once or twice a year.
They are probably neglected as a method to combat pandemics.
Their efficacy is easier to evaluate in the lab, because they generally don’t rely on people’s immune system.
Monoclonal antibodies can be as effective as vaccines. If they can be given intramuscularly and have a long half life (like Evusheld, ~2 months), they can act as prophylactic that needs a booster once or twice a year.
They are probably neglected as a method to combat pandemics.
Their efficacy is easier to evaluate in the lab, because they generally don’t rely on people’s immune system.
Difficulty here is mass-scale production, which has to be done at great expense in sterile bioreactors IIRC (my biochem days are way behind me).
Good point
Widespread use would put heavy selection pressure on the pathogen. I suspect the “effective half life” would be much shorter.