Executive Privilege: How Giving Trump Special Access To Experimental COVID Treatment Could Backfire

Trump receives Regeneron’s experimental antibody under FDA’s expanded access program, Gilead’s remdesivir and dexamethasone. The president’s treatment choices could influence clinical trials of all COVID-19 medicines and even trial recruitment for other diseases, experts said.

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.’s decision to grant US President Donald Trump expanded access to its experimental cocktail of two monoclonal antibodies for COVID-19 could hinder the company’s clinical trials of the treatment and also the public’s broader appreciation of the need for such trials in the first place, experts warn, a move that could be disastrous for this pandemic and beyond.

Less than 24 hours after Trump tweeted that he tested positive for COVID-19, the White House announced on Friday 2...