Nursing home residents who received the drug – known as LY-CoV555, also called bamlanivimab – had an 80% lower risk of developing Covid-19 symptoms compared to residents in the same facility who received a placebo, according to drugmaker Eli Lilly .
Eli Lilly will now consider urging FDA regulators to extend the authorized emergency use of the drug to not only the treatment of Covid-19, but also to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in long-term care facilities where someone positive for the disease tested.
“We are pleased that bamlanivimab is already available as a treatment for patients at high risk of progressing to severe COVID-19 disease or hospitalization, including those in nursing homes, and look forward to working with regulators to authorize expand emergency use to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in these facilities, “said Dr. Daniel Skovronsky, Lilly’s chief scientific officer and president of Lilly Research Laboratories, said in the company’s news release on Thursday.
“We are extremely pleased with these positive results, which have shown that bamlanivimab could help prevent COVID-19, which has significantly reduced the symptomatic disease among residents of nursing homes, some of the most vulnerable members of our society,” Skovronsky said.
The study included 1,097 residents and staff of long-term care facilities who randomly received 4,200 milligrams of bamlanivimab or a placebo.
The trial results showed that after eight weeks, only four of the residents in the study, which was originally tested negative for Covid-19, died of the disease – but the deaths all occurred in residents who received a placebo. There were no Covid-19 deaths among residents who received bamlanivimab, the company said in a statement.
Among the residents who originally tested positive, four people also died, but all received a placebo and there were no deaths among those who received bamlanivimab, the announcement said.
Throughout the trial, a total of 16 deaths were reported, including non-Covid-19 deaths, and all deaths were among residents, not staff members, according to the announcement. Eleven of the deaths occurred among people who received a placebo, and five were among those who received the therapy.
“The antiviral activity seen with bamlanivimab treatment underscores the importance of early intervention to counteract the devastating impact the virus has had on this vulnerable population and other high-risk patients,” said Dr. for global health and infectious diseases at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Eli Lilly’s announcement said Thursday.
“These results exceed our expectations, showing that this class of treatments can be used to prevent and treat diseases,” Cammack said in the statement.
“Reducing the risk of getting Covid-19 by up to 80% will be noticeable, and it could have a dramatic impact on the outbreaks of the most vulnerable groups worldwide,” Cammack said in part. “Monoclonal antibodies are traditionally the most expensive class of treatments in the world. Covid-19 should be the hub where they move from the rich world to the whole world and become part of the main therapeutic agents.”
Studies show that these treatments can prevent the risk of Covid-19 patients developing serious symptoms, but health officials believe that not enough of the available treatments have been used.
CNN’s Jen Christensen contributed to this report.