FL Blasts Biden Administration for Limiting Monoclonal Antibody Treatments

January 24, 2021 Updated 6:51 P.M. ET

TALLAHASSEE (FCV) – After the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced plans to limit monoclonal antibody treatments for COVID-19, Florida Deputy Secretary for Health Kenneth Scheppke sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) lambasting the decision.

Florida originally requested 30,000 doses of Regen-COV (Regeneron) and sotrovimab treatments. Scheppke said that the Florida Department of Health reached out “numerous times” to the HHS for a status report on their request, but said that the HHS has not responded.

“Our requests included doses of Regen-COV, which we understand the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just halted deployment. For some reason, states were not informed prior to this announcement,” he said.

“We believe the decision to delay our meeting was made with the awareness that this would be announced. Rather than transparent communication from the federal government to states, decisions continue to be made through news cycles and this actively prevents states from making operational decisions that actively save lives.”

Scheppke made it clear that Florida disagrees with the decision to halt Regeneron treatments “in the absence of clinically-based evidence, which to date has not been provided by the FDA.”

“Florida’s patients and their loved ones are deserving of access to treatment, and it is the Department’s sincere hope HHS will immediately release our state’s requested allocation for our state-supported sites.”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ (R) administration has repeatedly sparred with the Biden Administration for their peculiar behavior in regards to monoclonal antibody distribution. Florida had to fight to get additional doses of antibody treatments secured, and now the federal government is again limiting them.

Read the full email to the HHS below: