Drugmaker Eli Lilly said that its combination antibody therapy is 87% effective at preventing death and hospitalization due to COVID-19.
The company released data from a Phase 3 trial that tested the use of bamlanivimab 700mg and etesevimab 1400 mg together on 769 high-risk patients with mild to moderate COVID-19. In the trial, 511 patients received the treatment, and 258 received a placebo. There were only four hospitalizations and no deaths among the treatment group, while there were 15 hospitalizations and four deaths among the placebo group.
“These compelling data … give healthcare providers additional information regarding the use of bamlanivimab and etesevimab together as a potentially life-saving treatment to help those most at risk for severe complications of COVID-19,” said Daniel Skovronsky, Eli Lilly’s chief scientific officer.
Bamlanivimab and etesevimab are monoclonal antibodies, which are proteins developed in a laboratory that are designed to mimic the way the immune system attacks a pathogen.
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In a previous trial, the antibody therapy found a 70% risk reduction. However, the doses of each drug used in that trial was larger, each at 2800 mg.
Based on that trial, the Food and Drug Administration gave the combination treatment an emergency use authorization in early February. Later in the month, the U.S. government agreed to purchase 100,000 doses of the treatment.
Skovronsky suggested that the treatment may also be effective against the new variants of the coronavirus that have emerged in recent months.
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“The consistent results observed in multiple cohorts of this trial over several months, even as new strains of COVID-19 have emerged, indicate bamlanivimab with etesevimab maintains its effects against a range of variants, particularly those circulating in the U.S.,” Skovronsky said.
