Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly said on Wednesday that the combination of two antibody products to fight the coronavirus reduces the risk of hospitalization and death by 87 percent.
The finding is based on a study among 769 high-risk COVID-19 patients 12 years of age and older with mild to moderate COVID-19.
The company said no patients treated with the combination of bamlanivimab and etesevimab died. Four people in the placebo group died of the coronavirus.
“I expect this data to be able to make more and more use of” the antibodies, “said Daniel Skovronsky, chief scientific officer at Eli Lilly.
“We have few other diseases where we have medicines that can provide this benefit.”
This was the second large, late-stage study to show that antibody therapy is effective in treating mild to moderate cases of COVID-19.
The previous study, unveiled in January, used a higher dose of the drugs and reduced the risk of hospitalization by 70 percent.
U.S. regulators first approved the combination therapy in February for use in COVID-19 patients 12 years of age and older, who are at high risk of developing a severe case of the virus.
During the month, the US agreed to purchase a minimum of 100,000 doses of the combination treatment.
With Post threads