Written by Catheine Ho, San Francisco Chronicle
In the race to develop treatments for the coronavirus, two California biotech companies are teaming up to collect blood samples from people who have recovered from COVID-19 — with the hope that antibodies produced by their immune system after being infected can provide the key to developing a drug or vaccine.
San Francisco’s Vir Biotechnology and Los Angeles’ Sanguine Biosciences have begun collecting blood samples from 100 recovered patients in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle, Boston and Washington, D.C. Patients must have had COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, confirmed by a diagnostic test to participate in the study, and their diagnosis must have been made at least two weeks prior to their blood being drawn for the study.
The study is part of a growing number of investigations by researchers at drug companies, universities and public health agencies striving to better understand antibodies associated with the coronavirus. The idea is to not only create tests to detect who has had the virus, but also develop drugs to treat those who are sick.