Recognize Eli Lilly antibody therapy as a covid treatment

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The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the use of monoclonal antibody therapy manufactured by the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly as a drug for COVID-19. This monoclonal antibody called bamlanivimab is used to prevent worsening in patients with mild symptoms of COVID-19.

On Monday (9/11), the FDA allowed this particular antibody drug to be marketed under emergency use provisions.

"This emergency authorization allows us to provide bamlanivimab as a COVID-19 treatment to help add a valuable tool for physicians fighting the global pandemic," Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks said in a statement.

What is Eli Lilly's COVID-19 monoclonal antibody therapy?

“The data (study) BLAZE-1 shows bamlanivimab, when given early in the course of the disease, can help patients clear the virus and reduce the risk of hospitalization related to COVID-19. These results support our belief that viral neutralizing antibodies can be an important therapeutic option for COVID-19 patients, ”said Daniel Skovronsky, head of Eli Lilly's scientific and research laboratory team.

Monoclonal antibody drugs are synthetic antibodies designed to block viruses and prevent them from infecting cells. The concept is similar to the treatment known as blood plasma therapy or convalescent plasma.

When infected with COVID-19, the human immune system will naturally form antibodies to fight the disease. These antibodies will bind and fight viruses that infect the body.

Treatment of blood plasma therapy is carried out by direct transfusion of antibodies from recovered patients to patients who are fighting COVID-19. This transfusion of antibodies contained in blood plasma is believed to help fight the virus in the early stages of infection until the patient's immune system is infected with the ability to produce its own antibodies.

But blood plasma therapy has a limitation in that the donated plasma from recovered patients contains a mixture of different antibodies. According to studies on Journal of Clinical Virology There are antibodies that are effective against COVID-19 but some have no effect.

Eli Lilly's monoclonal antibody drug takes the concept of blood plasma treatment in the treatment of COVID-19. However, one type of immune therapy is able to avoid the limitations of blood plasma treatment because it does not depend on donor supplies and differences in the effectiveness of the antibodies they contain.

Monoclonal antibodies select antibodies that are able to target a specific pathogen such as SARS-CoV-2 which causes COVID-19 and are then mass-produced in the laboratory.

This drug made by Eli Lilly contains antibodies which are believed to help neutralize the movement of the virus in infecting healthy cells in the body.

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Is this drug effective?

Eli Lilly's monoclonal antibody drug can now be used to treat mild to moderate COVID-19 symptoms in patients over 12 years of age. Those over the age of 65 or with certain chronic medical conditions may also be prescribed the drug.

But this antibody treatment is not permitted for patients who are hospitalized or require oxygen therapy due to COVID-19. The FDA said the drug had not proven to be of benefit to these patients and could worsen their clinical status.

The main goal of giving this drug is so that COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms do not need to be hospitalized.

The FDA wants to limit the use of Lilly's drug to people who have a 10% chance of needing hospitalization. So that the likelihood of these patients requiring hospitalization drops to about 3%.

Giving monoclonal antibodies to COVID-19 patients who are not hospitalized is not easy because they have to be given intravenously or intravenously. One dose of this medicine is given in an infusion that lasts at least an hour and is monitored for an hour thereafter.