Lilly launches Phase 3 COVID-19 antibody treatment trials for nursing homes
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A first-of-its-kind study dealing with COVID-19 is originating in Indianapolis.
On Monday, Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly & Co. started Phase 3 trials of a potential treatment for COVID. This study plans to enroll up to 2,400 people nationwide who live and work at long-term care facilities. It’s a partnership with several U.S. long-term care facilities as well as the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Lilly said more than 40% of coronavirus deaths in our country are linked to long-term care facilities.
“Every day that we can get this to a patient faster is potentially a life that we could save in a nursing home around the U.S. That’s a life that’s meaningful to a family somewhere,” said Andrew Adams, Lilly’s vice president of new therapeutic modalities and COVID-19 research.
According to Lilly, the study will enroll up to 2,400 residents and staff who live or work at facilities that have had a recently diagnosed case of COVID-19 and who are now at a high risk of exposure.
“We’ll treat them with the antibody in a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial. Hopefully that will show that this therapeutic is effective in reducing infection of the coronavirus, and in those who do get infected, by blunting the symptoms.” Adams said.
Lilly has turned some recreational vehicles into laboratories on wheels. Adams says these mobile labs are on the road now to long-term care facilities in the U-S. They’ll set up an on-site infusion clinic.
Adams said people should think of these antibody therapeutics as “a bridge to a vaccine.”
“We can take it hopefully to these patient populations and protect them while we all wait for the vaccine that we hope are coming over the course of the next year,” Adams said. “We think by bringing this to them now that can help get that population across the line to a vaccine that can protect them long term.”
This is not a vaccine but a treatment trial study. Adams told News 8 Lilly will see in four weeks if the places with people treated with the placebo or the antibody see differences in the numbers of people who wind up getting the virus.
They are also going to be watching symptoms over an eight-week period.