Dr Michael Petrosky Speaks About Monoclonal Antibodies in RSV

Michael Petrosky, MD, of the Allegheny Health Network, spoke about the potential impact of monoclonal antibodies on the prevention and treatment of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in infants.

Transcript

Do you see treatment for RSV becoming more proactive with the new monoclonal antibody?

I definitely agree with that, and living in the world of pediatrics, that's our big thing is prevention. That's why we're big on the vaccine schedules. That's why we have to see children every so often make sure they're growing and developing well, to just sort of help prevent serious issues or if we can catch things earlier, we know outcomes are definitely better. It'll definitely be more preventative. What's nice is we're able to get more kids vaccinated, get kids more immune to RSV, at least for the short amount of time, and with pretty much less of a hassle. If you only have to come in once to get the job done, as opposed to 5 times, it's definitely helpful. So it's going to get kids covered for longer periods of time and get more kids covered.

Will these monoclonal antibodies become as commonplace as the flu vaccine?

I think at this point, if this is what we have, then yes, it'll definitely help because we know this is really the only thing we have to cover to protect infants against RSV. Going back to your earlier question, where you mentioned other injections, immunizations come along. So there are actually vaccines for RSV, but it's for the older population, those 60 and older. And that's more that active immunization. I think, until we can get a good active vaccination program for infants, monoclonal antibodies will help. We know last year was pretty rough with RSV; it came a whole lot earlier than expected [and] lasted longer. So we know the more we can prevent [1 child] from getting it, that's 1 less child that can then pass it on to someone else. So we know, until we get something better, these monoclonal antibodies are going to be the best that we have to help prevent RSV in infants.