The new therapy reduced the risk of hospitalization by 70%; it also reduced the patients’ viral load and the time to recover from the disease.
The combination by US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly of two synthetic antibodies reduced COVID-19 hospital admissions and deaths by 70% in high-risk patients with recent positive tests, the company said Tuesday.
“Bamlanivimab and etesevimab together have the potential to be an important treatment that significantly reduces hospital admissions and deaths in high-risk COVID-19 patients,” said Daniel Skovronsky, Lilly’s Chief Scientific Officer.
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The results were obtained from a phase 3 study with 1035 people.
The treatment also reduced the patients’ viral load and the time to recover from the disease.
Patients were assigned a placebo or the combination of 2.8 grams of each of the two antibodies.
There were 11 deaths or hospitalizations among the patients receiving the treatment, 2.1% of that group.
In the placebo there were 36 deaths or hospitalizations, 7% of the group.
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Therefore, the therapy represented a 70% risk reduction. The result was statistically significant, meaning that it is unlikely to have been recorded by chance.
There were a total of 10 deaths, all among the patients taking placebo and none in the therapy group.
The company said it will continue to study the drug in another study to see if lower doses would have the same effect.
Monoclonal antibodies are versions of the body’s natural defenses that are made in the lab to fight infection.