Eli Lilly reports first, promising results for an antibody against COVID-19

Eli Lilly reports first, promising results for an antibody against COVID-19 More results expected soon from similar trials Science | AAAS

Today brings the first whisper of success for a class of closely watched drugs that it’s hoped will begin to beat back COVID-19 before vaccines are licensed: monoclonal antibodies, engineered versions of the same virus-fighting antibodies that the body naturally produces.

Eli Lilly reports this morning interim results from a placebo-controlled trial of one such compound, cloned in quantity from an antibody captured from the blood of a patient who recovered from COVID-19. In June, the company began a trial delivering either placebo or one of three doses of the antibody, called LY-CoV555, to 452 patients. These were not gravely ill people, but patients with mild or moderate symptoms who had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 within the past 3 days and had not been hospitalized.

Five of 302 patients who received the drug ended up being hospitalized—1.7%. But nine of the 150 placebo patients ended up in the hospital—6%—meaning there was a 72% reduced risk of being hospitalized for patients who received the antibody versus those who received a placebo. The drug produced no serious side effects, the company reports.

“Since these are the first clinical data we’ve seen from neutralizing antibodies, I find the results quite encouraging, for lack of safety issues and supportive signs—not definitive, by any means—of having efficacy,” says Eric Topol, a cardiologist who directs the Scripps Research Translational Institute. “So much is riding on this class of drugs for prevention, early treatment (as in this trial),” and use in hospitals before patients become critically ill. ...