Reuters news agency reported on Wednesday that the US government will buy 1.25 million additional doses of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals' COVID-19 antibody cocktail for about USD2.63bn. thereby bringing the total supply of the treatment to over 1.5 million doses.

Reportedly, this cocktail, a combination of two antibodies casirivimab and imdevimab, was authorised in November 2020 for emergency use by the US Food and Drug Administration.

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said the doses will be delivered in the first half of 2021 to treat non-hospitalised, high-risk COVID-19 patients.

In a statement, HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, Robert Kadlec, said: "With COVID-19 cases continuing to rise, treating people with mild or moderate infections can help prevent hospitalisations."

The Regeneron treatment is part of a class of drugs known as monoclonal antibodies, which are manufactured copies of antibodies created by the human body to fight infections.

Earlier this week, Regeneron had said its therapy will likely be effective against new variants of the COVID-19 virus identified so far in a handful of countries.

Also, Eli Lilly's antibody treatment has also been authorised for emergency use by the regulator, Reuters added.

The HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) said on 12 January 2021 that to date, it has allocated over 127,700 treatment courses of the therapy.