Eli Lilly’s Antibody Med Shows Potential in Preventing COVID-19 in the Elderly
Eli Lilly reported yesterday that its monoclonal antibody bamlanivimab (LY-CoV555) significantly lessened the risk of contracting COVID-19 among nursing home residents and staff, according to findings from a phase 3 trial.
Researchers randomized patients to either 4,200 mg of IV-administered bamlanivimab or placebo and saw that after eight weeks of participant follow-up, the 965 participants who tested negative for the virus at baseline saw a 57 percent lower frequency of symptomatic COVID-19 in the drug arm compared to the placebo arm.
Notably, for the participants who were nursing home residents, researchers found that there was an 80 percent reduction in the frequency of symptomatic COVID-19 among those who received the monoclonal antibody.
“These results suggest that residents randomized to bamlanivimab have up to an 80 percent lower risk of contracting COVID-19 vs. residents in the same facility randomized to placebo,” Eli Lilly said.
The findings from the National Institutes of Health-supported prevention study, which enrolled nearly 1,100 participants, are significant given that until now a monoclonal antibody had not been shown to help prevent infection from COVID-19 in a late-stage trial.
David Skovronsky, Lilly’s chief scientific officer and president of Lilly Research Laboratories, said the positive results “provide important additional clinical evidence regarding the use of bamlanivimab to fight COVID-19 and strengthen our conviction that monoclonal antibodies such as bamlanivimab can play a critical role in turning the tide of this pandemic.”
The antibody drug is currently cleared, under Emergency Use Authorization, for treating high-risk patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 who don’t need to be hospitalized or put on oxygen. It is not currently authorized for use as a preventative treatment in nursing homes, but Eli Lilly said it intends to work with regulators to try and get the clearances expanded. — James Miessler