Drug manufacturer Eli Lilly announced on Thursday that an unusual experiment to prevent staff members and residents of nursing homes from being infected with the coronavirus.
A drug containing monoclonal antibodies – virus fighters in the laboratory – has prevented symptomatic infections in residents exposed to the virus, even debilitated elderly people who are most vulnerable, according to preliminary results from a study conducted in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health.
According to the researchers, there is an 80 percent reduction in infections among residents who received the drug, compared to those who received a placebo, and a 60 percent reduction among staff. Results were very statistically powerful, Eli Lilly said.
The data have not yet been peer-reviewed or published. The company expects to present the findings at a future medical meeting and publish them in a peer-reviewed journal, but did not say when.
The study included 965 participants in nursing homes: 666 staff members and 299 residents. (The company had hoped that more residents would participate, but it was difficult to enroll them. Many had dementia, and others wanted an intravenous remedy.)
There were four deaths from Covid-19 among the study participants. All were among residents of nursing homes who received a placebo, not the drug.
The drug, bamlanivimab, already has an emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration enabling Eli Lilly to give it to symptomatic patients early in the course of their infection.
But this study asked if the drug could stop infections before it started. It was an unusual experiment: in trucks equipped with mobile laboratories, medical staff moved to nursing homes at the moment a single infection was detected there. Once the workers arrived there, they set up temporary infusion centers to administer the drug.
The inquiry concluded this weekend with an emergency meeting of the Data Security and Monitoring Board, an independent group monitoring the incoming results. The data was strong and convincing enough to bring the placebos to a standstill.
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Answers to your vaccine questions
Although the exact order of vaccine recipients may vary by state, medical workers and residents of long-term care institutions are likely to be first. If you want to understand how this decision is made, this article will help.
Life will return to normal when society as a whole gets enough protection against the coronavirus. Once countries approve a vaccine, they will be able to vaccinate at most a few percent of their citizens in the first few months. The unvaccinated majority will still be vulnerable to infection. A growing number of coronavirus vaccines offer strong protection against disease. But it is also possible for people to spread the virus without even knowing they are infected, because they experience only mild symptoms or not at all. Scientists do not yet know whether the vaccination also blocks the transmission of the coronavirus. For now, even vaccinated people will have to wear masks, crowds inside, and so on. Must avoid. Once enough people are vaccinated, it will be very difficult for the coronavirus to find vulnerable people who can become infected. Depending on how quickly we as a society reach the goal, life may begin by the fall of 2021 to approach something as normal.
Yes, but not forever. The two vaccines that may be approved this month clearly protect people against Covid-19. However, the clinical trials that have yielded these results have not been designed to determine whether people who have been vaccinated can still spread the coronavirus without developing symptoms. It remains a possibility. We know that people who are naturally infected by the coronavirus can spread it while experiencing no cough or other symptoms. Researchers will study this question intensively as the vaccines begin. Meanwhile, even vaccinated people will have to think of themselves as possible distributors.
The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine is delivered like a shot in the arm, like other typical vaccines. The injection will not be different from what you received before. Tens of thousands of people have already received the vaccinations, and none of them have reported serious health problems. But some of them felt transient discomfort, including pains and flu-like symptoms that usually last a day. It is possible that people after the second shot may be planning to take a day off from work or school. Although these experiences are not pleasant, it is a good sign: it is the result of your own immune system encountering the vaccine and getting a powerful response that will provide long-lasting immunity.
No. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines use a genetic molecule to replenish the immune system. That molecule, known as mRNA, is eventually destroyed by the body. The mRNA is packaged in an oily bubble that can fuse with a cell so that the molecule can slide. The cell uses the mRNA to make proteins from the coronavirus, which can stimulate the immune system. Each of our cells can contain hundreds of thousands of mRNA molecules at any one time that they produce to make their own proteins. Once those proteins are made, our cells cut the mRNA with special enzymes. The mRNA molecules that make up our cells can only survive for a few minutes. The mRNA in vaccines is designed to resist the cells’ enzymes a little longer, allowing the cells to produce extra viral proteins and trigger a stronger immune response. But the mRNA can only take a few days at most before being destroyed.
“My jaw dropped when I saw the table with outcomes,” said dr. Myron Cohen, a professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said and a lead researcher who helped design and implement the study.
Although the study ended, dr. Daniel Skovronsky, chief scientific officer of Eli Lilly, said the company would continue to rush to nursing homes in its study network if an outbreak was detected. “Everyone will get the drug,” he said.
Experts who were not part of the study were enthusiastic, but stressed that they had not yet seen complete data. “I only see positive aspects here,” said Dr. Ofer Levy, director of the precision vaccine program at Boston Children’s Hospital, said. “It’s a victory.”
Dr. Kathleen Neuzil, director of the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health at the University of Maryland, was also encouraged.
“The mortality effect is remarkable,” she said, adding that the drug should be used more widely to prevent and treat Covid-19, “especially in populations such as nursing home residents, who have a high mortality rate and possibly suboptimal vaccine responses. has. ”
Vaccinations, of course, also protect people from infection with the virus, and staff and residents of nursing homes were among the first group to be pre-screened for the shots. But the stock is insufficient, and many workers in the nursing home, who are afraid of the vaccines, do not want to get it.
And after vaccination, the body can take six weeks to produce enough antibodies for maximum protection, said Dr. Srilatha Edupuganti, a vaccine researcher at Emory University in Atlanta, and an investigator said.
According to her, the monoclonal antibody treatment can provide immediate protection, although it will not last as long as the protection provided by a vaccine.
Eli Lilly plans to approach the FDA over an emergency permit for the use of the drug to prevent infections in debilitated elderly populations, especially in nursing homes or long-term care facilities, said Dr. Skovronsky said.