Eli Lilly: Drug can combat disease in nursing homes

INDIANAPOLIS — Drugmaker Eli Lilly said Thursday that its antibody drug can prevent COVID-19 illness in residents and staff of nursing homes and other long-term care locations.

It’s the first major study to show that such a treatment may prevent illness in a group that has been devastated by the pandemic.

Residents and staff who got the drug had up to a 57 percent lower risk of getting COVID-19, compared with others at the same facility who got a placebo, the drugmaker said. Among nursing home residents only, the risk was reduced by up to 80 percent.

The study involved more than 1,000 residents and staff at nursing homes and other long-term care locations such as assisted living homes. The vast majority tested negative at the start of the study. Some were assigned to get the drug, which is called bamlanivimab and is given through an IV, and others got placebo infusions.

The research was conducted with the National Institutes of Health. Results came via a news release, and the company said it would publish more details in a journal soon.

Among the nearly 300 residents who did not have COVID-19, four later got the disease and died. Lilly said all of them had received the placebo.

The Food and Drug Administration in November allowed emergency use of Lilly’s antibody drug as a treatment for people ages 12 and older with mild or moderate cases of COVID-19 that do not require hospitalization. It’s a one-time treatment.

Lilly said it plans to work with regulators to see about expanding the authorization to prevent and treat COVID-19 in long-term care facilities, where vaccinations are already underway.

Experts have said drugs such as Lilly’s could serve as a bridge to help manage the virus until vaccines are widely available.

Nursing homes and other longterm care locations have been hard hit by the pandemic. In the U.S., they account for less than 1 percent of the population but nearly 40 percent of deaths from COVID-19.

There will still be a need for Lilly’s drug in places such as nursing homes even though vaccines are already being distributed there, said WBB Securities President Steve Brozak, who follows the pharmaceutical industry.

But Brozak questioned how long the treatment might be effective with new variants of the coronavirus popping up.