Eli Lilly’s bamlanivimab was the first antibody drug the FDA authorized to treat COVID-19. Now, the Indianapolis pharma has data showing the therapy prevents symptomatic infections.
The catch? The data are limited to long-term care facilities, where vaccination is now underway—and despite their utility, antibody thereapies are having a tough time catching on.
Bamlanivimab cut the risk of developing symptomatic COVID-19 by 57% among residents and staffers of long-term care facilities in a phase 3 trial conducted by the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Lilly said Thursday. The risk reduction was higher at 80% among the subgroup of nursing home residents.
Author: Canan Schuman, PharmD/PhD
Canan Schumann is Chief Editor for Axxiem and for Axxiem's blog "BiotechOntheWeb". When not writing for Axxiem, Canan works as a Clinical Research Scientist II at the Research and Development Department at Molecular Testing Labs, developing endpoint assays for the detection of infectious disease and cancer. Canan currently resides in Portland, Oregon, where he received his Honors Bachelor of Science (HBS), Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD.), and his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Biopharmaceutics at Oregon State University.