These research teams come from various parts of the world, such as the Netherlands, Israel,and Japan. The researchers were successful in developing strong antibodies that appear under lab conditions, seem to be capable of neutralizing the virus. However, like we said, these are under lab conditions which means that it is unclear how it will work in humans and if it will be just as effective.
Speaking to The Guardian, researcher Berend-Jan Bosch from Utrecht University said, “Such a neutralizing antibody has potential to alter the course of infection in the infected host, support virus clearance or protect an uninfected individual that is exposed to the virus.” Needless to say that so far all these drugs will have a ton of hurdles to overcome before they can even be considered effective and safe for the masses, so we could be in for a wait.
In the meantime, other companies are working on vaccines, such as Moderna who are hoping to move onto the second phase of its trials. There are also some who are floating more controversial ideas, such as deliberately infecting healthy hosts with the virus to help speed up these trials.