An executive at Regeneron, a biotech group that makes an antibody treatment for Covid-19, has made the unsubstantiated claim that Colin Powell’s life could have been saved if he had received infusions of the drug.

George Yancopoulos made the unusual comments about the former US secretary of state — who died this week from Covid complications aged 84 — at a healthcare conference on Tuesday, where he stepped up the company’s attacks against what it alleges is the US government’s failure to fully embrace antibody treatments.

“I don’t know all the details of that [death of Powell] but that could probably been prevented by the use of monoclonal antibodies in the right way,” Regeneron’s co-founder and chief scientific officer told the audience on Tuesday in Boston.