Antibody therapy, a reality in the USA likely to develop more… After the FDA (Food & Drug Administration) gave Emergency Use Authorization this November 9, 2020 to the use of Bamlanivimab – name of the therapy coming from an antibody-based Covid clinical trial developed by pharmaceutical laboratory Eli Lilly – in mid-January 2021, the drugmaker filed another Emergency Use Authorization Approval for a mix therapy using Bamlanivimab and Etesevimab.
The therapy has delivered encouraging results so far. Unveiled this Wednesday March 10, the Bamlanivimab and Etesevimab combination – including a 700mg Bamlanivimab dose and 1.4g Etesevimab – is said to reduce hospitalization and death risk more sharply, up to 84%. A few weeks ago, this risk was 70%, according to the latest studies released in late January.
They always detail antibodies are said to also reduce the viral load in one’s body, helping people infected to recover from symptoms more quickly. “It is rather encouraging” Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, Texas) infectious disease specialist Prathit Kulkarni explained already, detailing data released by the laboratory – even though promising – were still to be handled with care as data were not complete yet.
As for the latest clinical trial, it has been led on 769 people over 12 years of age, who tested positive, and showing risk factors of severe infection. In this group, 511 have been given the treatment and the remaining 258 a placebo. Among people given the medicine, only four of them needed hospitalization. None of them died. As for the placebo group, 11 people have been hospitalized and four died.
Anyway, Eli Lilly also announced they are testing another combination of medicines, Bamlanivimab and VIR-7831, an antibody developed by Vir Biotechnology and GlaxoSmithKilne (GSK).
As for the FDA’s authorization of Bamlanivimab as a cue, it has been made after examining the clinical trial’s particularly encouraging data, showing a single injection of antibodies dramatically reduced the necessity to hospitalize patients at risk, or emergency attend them. A treatment that reminds of Regeneron, a cocktail of antibodies developed by the pharmaceutical company of the same name and inoculated this past October to former President of the United-States, Donald Trump, when he was infected with coronavirus. A decision also hailed by the White House in a release.
Anyway, this is a major breakthrough in the fight against the epidemic that has been spreading for too long already all over the world.
