Eli Lilly therapy shown to reduce death in Covid study

Eli Lilly said on Wednesday that its combination antibody therapy had been shown to reduce the risk of hospitalisation and death for Covid-19 patients by 87%.

The randomised double-blind phase III study involved 769 high-risk patients aged 12 and older with mild to moderate Covid-19. They were given a combination of two antibody therapies, 700mg of bamlanivimab and 1,400mg of etesevimab.

The results of the study showed the combined antibodies "significantly reduced" Covid hospitalisations and deaths, or events. Of the 769 patients in the trial, there were four events in those taking the antibodies, and 15 in those taking the placebo.

Eli Lilly said: "These results provide additional efficacy and safety data that support the use of the dose recently granted both Emergency Use Authorization by the US Food and Drug Administration and a positive scientific opinion by the European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use."

The FDA approved the therapy in February following the publication of the last trial data in January.

Daniel Skovronsky, Eli Lily’s chief scientific officer, said: "These compelling data give healthcare providers additional information regarding the use of bamlanivimab and etesevimab together as a potentially life-saving treatment to help those most at risk for severe complications of Covid-19.

"The consistent results observed in multiple cohorts of this trial over several months, even as new strains of Covid-19 have emerged, indicate [the combined treatment] maintains its effects against a range of variants."

Skovronsky told Reuters that Eli Lilly was in active talks with governments globally about the combined therapy and was prepared to manufacture 1m doses over the coming months. The US government in February agreed to purchase a minimum of 100,000 doses.