California Biotech Company Claims They're Steps Away From Coronavirus Cure

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A California biotech company claims they're steps away from an all-out cure for the coronavirus.

News of this sent shares of company stock soaring on Friday, but some are meeting this with a skeptical eye.

As dozens of big-name companies poke and prod their way to a possible treatment for COVID-19, one relatively small biotech firm is boasting about a potential cure. Sorrento Therapeutics claims it's developed an "antibody cocktail" that would give someone a protective shield against the virus.

Excitement aside, Sorrento's top management claims though the study has been done in cells only, they hit a jackpot, finding an antibody that prevents the virus from wrapping around its host. That means two things will happen: "they will die eventually or they're going to be kicked out of the body by the antibody," Sorrento co-founder and CEO Dr. Henry Ji said.

They say the virus would be flushed out within four days.

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Sorrento will test this potential cure on hamsters soon.

"And we anticipate having enough tested material to supply the initial phase one study in very sick patients in the July-August time frame," Mark R. Brunswick, Ph.D., Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Quality, said.

The company has asked the FDA for an accelerated review and they had an answer to the early critics who call their claims of a cure "overly-hyped."

"That's absolute nonsense. This is not hype. This is real," Brunswick said.

Researchers say they'll be able to make 200,000 doses each month snd plan to make one million doses while it waits for the green light.

It's a potential light at the end of what's been a very dark tunnel.

"This has the potential — and again I say potential — to open up the country up very very quickly," Brunswick said.

Sorrento says they could have their antibody cure months before any vaccine.