THD NewsDesk, INDIANA (USA): Eli Lilly and Co. proudly announced that it has masterfully developed an experimental antibody treatment that could likely curtail the need for hospitalization of symptomatic Covid-19 patients on 16th September. The preliminary results of the study undertaken by Lilly in partnership with AbCellera Biologics Inc., a biotechnology company indicate that this drug could avert the necessity of making frequent emergency visits to the hospital for moderately ill coronavirus patients.
Lilly and AbCellera have collaborated to develop neutralizing antibodies derived from a recovered coronavirus patient. Antibodies are proteins made by the immune system that bind to foreign pathogens on cells and prevent the infection of healthy cells.
Results of the Clinical Trials
The trial was conducted on 302 patients with mild coronavirus symptoms. The participants of the study were treated with three different doses of LY-CoV555.
- Only 5 or 1.7% of the total patients treated with LY-CoV55 had to be hospitalized or required an emergency room visit, respectively, as compared to 6% in the placebo group, Lilly said.
- Out of the three doses, only the 2,800-milligram dose was successful in reducing the amount of virus detected in patients 11 days after treatment.
- Lilly said most of the infected patients had completely cleared the virus by day 11, including those in the placebo group.
“These data are not a home run but… are among the most encouraging COVID treatment data we’ve seen, particularly given this is in mild-to-moderate outpatients where there has simply been no treatment progress until now,” Raymond James analyst Steven Seedhouse remarked on the findings.
Lilly is now seeking approval for emergency use authorization for its antibody-drug LY-CoV555 by USFDA after it is reviewed by global regulators.
Further, the company has promised that the results of the interim analysis would be out soon. People can expect to see it published in a peer-reviewed journal. Lilly has already begun working on developing its second Lilly antibody, LY-CoV016., which when combined with Ly-CoV55 could help in preventing COVID-19 in nursing home residents and staff and for treating patients already diagnosed with moderate COVID-19. The interim results of the clinical trials already seem promising, and in due time, Lilly would be able to make a significant contribution to the portfolio of treatments available for combatting Covid-19 virus.