Eli Lilly says her antibody treatment helps prevent Covid-19 in nursing homes

Study results were described in a company press release, but Eli Lilly noted that the full results will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed clinical journal.

The results suggest a key preventive use of antibody therapy, which received emergency use clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in November to treat mild to moderate coronavirus infections in adults and children. . Treatment is given as an infusion in a hospital or other health care setting.

“We are pleased that bamlanivimab is already available as a treatment for patients at high risk of progressing to severe COVID-19 illness or hospitalization, including those in nursing homes, and we look forward to working with regulators to explore the expansion of emergency use authorization to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at these facilities, ”said Dr. Daniel Skovronsky, scientific director of Lilly and president of the research laboratories of Lilly on Thursday. Lilly.

“We are extremely pleased with these positive results, which have shown that bamlanivimab can help prevent COVID-19, dramatically reducing symptomatic illness among residents of nursing homes, some of the most vulnerable members of our society,” said said Skovronsky.

The study included 1,097 residents and staff of long-term care facilities who were randomly given 4,200 milligrams of bamlanivimab or a placebo.

The results of the trial showed that after eight weeks, of the residents in the study who initially tested negative for Covid-19, four died of the disease – but the deaths all occurred in residents who have received a placebo. There have been no deaths from Covid-19 among residents who received bamlanivimab, according to the company announcement.

Among the residents who initially tested positive, four people also died, but they all received a placebo and there were no deaths among those who received bamlanivimab, according to the announcement.

Throughout the trial, there were a total of 16 reported deaths, including deaths unrelated to Covid-19, and all of the deaths were to residents and not to staff, according to the announcement. Eleven of these deaths occurred in people who received a placebo and five in those who received the treatment.

“The antiviral activity seen with bamlanivimab treatment underscores the importance of early intervention to help counter the devastating impact of the virus on this vulnerable population and other high-risk patients,” Dr. Myron Cohen, co- Senior researcher and director of the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Eli Lilly said in Thursday’s announcement.

“These results exceed our expectations, demonstrating that this class of treatments can be used to both prevent and treat disease,” Cammack said in the release.

“Reducing the risk of contracting Covid-19 by up to 80% would be remarkable and could have a dramatic impact on epidemics among the world’s most vulnerable groups,” Cammack said in part. “Monoclonal antibodies are traditionally the most expensive class of treatments in the world. Covid-19 must be the turning point when they move from the rich world to the whole world and become part of mainstream therapy.”

Studies show that these treatments can prevent patients at high risk of Covid-19 from developing severe symptoms, but health officials say available treatments have not been used enough.