Covid-19: Promising results for the treatment of Eli Lilly and other scientific news
The American company Eli Lilly has made public the results of phase 3 of its antibody-based clinical trial and announces 70% effectiveness.
Handout National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases / AFP / Archivos
Text by: Simon Rozé Follow
5 mins
Faced with the Covid-19 pandemic, the American company Eli Lilly has made public the results of phase 3 of its antibody-based clinical trial.
These results are promising and the company announces 70% efficiency.
Publicity
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Unfortunately, we will have to settle for a
press release
for the moment.
While waiting for the publication of an article in a scientific journal, the company
Eli Lilly
has, however, put online some data concerning phase 3 of its clinical trial based on antibodies.
These are molecules produced by the immune system to neutralize the Sars-CoV-2 responsible for Covid-19.
The principle of this treatment is to synthesize these antibodies directly in the laboratory, and then administer them intravenously to patients.
A conclusive phase 2 has already been carried out and its results have just been published in the
New England Journal of Medicine
and the
Journal of the American Medical Association
(JAMA).
For this phase 3, 1035 people testing positive and showing symptoms of the disease were recruited and were separated into two groups, one receiving a placebo, the other treatment with these two antibodies, bamlanivimab and etesevimab. .
Twenty-nine days later, the results are encouraging: "
Our protocol has successfully reduced the number of deaths or hospitalizations due to Covid-19
", explains Dan Skovronsky, scientific director of Eli Lilly.
“
7% of people in the placebo group suffered from it, compared to only 2.1% for the treated group.
This therefore represents a risk reduction of 70%.
The consequences in terms of public health could be enormous: if this reduction in the number of deaths or hospitalizations is generalized, this will have a profound impact on the evolution of the pandemic
”, specifies the scientific manager of Eli Lilly.
Treatment for everyone?
Unfortunately, this stage of generalization is complicated.
The processing is heavy as are the logistics that accompany it.
These are long transfusions, which require medical equipment and personnel.
Eli Lilly announces, however, that he is working to reduce the duration of the transfusion, and even to offer treatment in the form of injections.
We can nevertheless imagine that it will be reserved primarily for the most fragile people and at risk of developing a serious form of Covid-19.
There is also the question of the effectiveness of these antibodies against variants of the coronavirus.
It is maintained in the face of that which appeared in the United Kingdom, assures the company.
As for the Brazilian and South African variants, Dan Skovronsky is optimistic: “
We use two antibodies that will each bind to a different part of the key that the virus uses to enter our cells.
Taken separately, they are already powerful enough to neutralize a number of viruses.
By combining the two, we believe that we will be effective against a wider range of variants, especially those that are now spreading around the planet
.
"
Hospital saturation and excess mortality
Eli Lilly therefore announces a 70% reduction in hospitalizations with his treatment: if the promise of its generalization is kept, this would also have a direct impact on mortality.
We suspected that overloaded hospital services led to excess mortality;
a
study published in JAMA
confirms this.
In this study we read that a patient hospitalized in a saturated intensive care unit has a 2.35 times more chance of dying than a patient admitted to a non-overloaded unit.
Further proof of the need to "
flatten the curve
" and prevent a massive influx of patients from clogging up hospitals.
If not, it pays off immediately in the number of deaths.
Pfizer vaccine and allergies
Several cases of severe allergic reactions have been reported following the injection of the vaccine developed by
Pfizer-BioNtech
.
We can read once again in the JAMA a study in which the authors measured the extent of this phenomenon.
After analyzing the administration of 1,893,360 doses, they identified 21 allergic events, or 11 cases per million doses.
No deaths have occurred, and more than 80% of those who have suffered from it already had a history of it.
The study authors also note that most reactions occurred within 30 minutes of the injection.
They therefore recommend follow-up and monitoring for one hour after the bite.
►
To read: Covid-19: to save the world economy, rich countries must not monopolize vaccines
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