First Study of Potential Antibody Therapy against COVID-19

Jun 12, 2020 by Ameer Helles



Eli Lilly and Company has started an early-stage clinical trial to test their potential treatment for COVID-19 in the first antibody treatment study in the world.

The Company stated that their early-stage study would assess safety and tolerability in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 with results expected by the end of June.

The investigational treatment, LY-CoV555, was developed in collaboration with AbCellera Biologics, which Lilly partnered with in March.

"Antibody treatments like the one being studied here hold promise to be effective medical countermeasures against this deadly infection," said Dr. Mulligan, MD, director of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology and director of the Vaccine Center at NYU Langone Health.

Lilly said that they plan to step into the next phase of trials to research possible therapy of non-hospitalized COVID-19 patients if the medication is found to be effective.

Rival Regeneron Pharmacuticals Inc. has also announced that it aims to begin clinical trials in June to test its antibody cocktail vaccine for the new coronavirus and is planning to have hundreds of thousands of therapeutic doses ready by the end of August.

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