Sioux Falls company launches human trials for COVID-19 treatment

A Sioux Falls company that is developing a COVID-19 therapeutic announced Tuesday that it has embarked on human trials.

SAB Biotherapeutics said that 28 healthy volunteers were participating in the company’s phase-one trial of its antibody treatment known as SAB-185. The phase-one study will evaluate the safety of treating patients with the therapeutic, which is a human antibody that can be produced at large scale using genetically modified cattle.

“This is a critical time in the global fight against COVID-19 and we believe that SAB-185, a fully-human polyclonal antibody, has the potential to serve as a differentiated therapeutic option,” SAB President and CEO Eddie Sullivan said in a release announcing the trial. Preclinical data, Sullivan added, has demonstrated that SAB-185 develops “highly potent neutralizing antibodies” that are more potent than human convalescent plasma serum.

Read the full article for Argus Leader. here.