COVID-19 treatment touted by Trump was tested with cells drawn from fetal tissue
By Jessie Hellmann - 10/08/20 05:42 PM EDT
A COVID-19 treatment used by President Trump during his illness was tested using a cell line derived from a human fetus, even though his administration opposes the use of aborted fetuses for scientific purposes.
Regeneron’s antibody cocktail, touted by Trump as a “cure†for COVID-19, was tested using a cell line originally derived from human embryonic kidney cells from an abortion performed in the Netherlands in the 1970s.
The cell line was used to test whether the antibody cocktail could neutralize the coronavirus. The cells are considered “immortalized,†meaning they divide indefinitely.
However, fetal tissue was not used in research for the antibody cocktail, and neither human stem cells nor human embryonic stem cells were used in development, a Regeneron spokesperson said in a statement.
The Trump administration last year banned the National Institutes of Health from using fetal tissue in research and said outside proposals funded by the agency must undergo an ethics review.
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https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/520284-covid-19-treatment-touted-by-trump-was-tested-with-cells-drawn-from-fetal
