Monoclonal antibodies and HEK293
I was recently asked (informally) to look into the two monoclonal antibody options on the market and any connection with HEK293 (sometimes known as 293T and 293F, among other names), which is an aborted fetal cell strain from a kidney cell from the 1970s. I am by no means an expert on this, but I spent some time reading and wanted to pass along so others do not reinvent the wheel. Any corrections appreciated. I also understand that not all referenced articles mean a direct connection to HEK. However, I tried hard to identify articles that were critical to the studying in vitro action of the antibodies by these two companies themselves and used to support preclinical evidence of effectiveness. There are two currently available monoclonal antibody options in the US: Regen-CoV by Regeneron and Sotrovimab by GSK-Vir. Regeneron Regeneron isolated something like 30 antibodies to Sars-CoV-2, and then worked on identifying the most effective at the in-vitro cellular level. They decided to p