The CEO of Regeneron, a pharmaceutical company developing a coronavirus treatment, said the U.S. has limited capacity to manufacture potential COVID-19 treatments or vaccines.
Leonard Schleifer said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” two aspects of health care infrastructure must be in place for when a vaccine or treatment becomes available: distribution and manufacturing.
“Our distribution capabilities work. I’m not worried about that,” he said. “Our manufacturing capacity, on the other hand…I think our capacity is limited.”
Schleifer said the U.S. is limited in its capacity to create coronavirus treatments, such as the one Regeneron is working on using antibodies to treat COVID-19, and vaccines are not sufficient.
{mosads}“If there’s something we have to learn from this pandemic so that when COVID-21 or 25 or 32 comes along, we need a little bit more capacity already in place so that we can get it to everybody,” he said.
Schleifer also said he is optimistic that a drug or vaccine will be created to treat or prevent COVID-19, noting the numerous companies working to create such treatments.
“I think will get something, the question is when,” he said.