‘Proof it does save lives’

Use of experimental COVID-19 treatment expanding locally

More than two months after she received an experimental treatment for COVID-19 that helped her breathe again, Stacie Boose said she is feeling better but still recovering from the effects of the respiratory infection.

“Even now I still feel like it rears its head. I get really tired faster than I used to,” Boose said. “I think it’s still a problem, but I still feel much better than I did. Oh, I feel so much better.”

Boose, 46, is overweight, diabetic and has high blood pressure, which put her at high risk of experiencing severe complications from COVID-19. Her high-risk status also made her an ideal patient for monoclonal antibody treatment, which has been successful in preventing people like Boose from suffering the worst effects of the deadly disease.

The treatment uses synthetic

proteins called monoclonal antibodies. One of the drugs, bamlanivimab, was developed by pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals has developed a pair of drugs to be used together called casirivimab and imdevimab. Injected intravenously, the drugs mimic the immune system’s ability to fight COVID-19.

Lilly and Regeneron’s drugs received emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration toward the end of 2020 and are meant to treat patients experiencing mild to moderate COVID-19 symptoms.

Boose, 46, said she didn’t know she had the disease until Thanksgiving, when she had to be taken to the hospital because she couldn’t breathe. The Allentown resident said she found out she’d developed pneumonia caused by COVID-19.

Her doctor told her about the treatment and she received the procedure on Dec. 3 at St. Luke’s University Health Network’s Easton Campus. Though some have reported it took them a day or two to start feeling better, Boose said she noticed a difference about 90 minutes after leaving the hospital.

“By the time we got from Easton to the Lehigh Valley Mall on [Route] 22, I was breathing,” Boose said. “I could breathe again.”

Boose is one of more than 900 patients to receive monoclonal antibody treatment through St. Luke’s since it began offering the procedure in late November. Lehigh Valley Health Network started to offer the procedure in early December and has treated about 500 patients.

Boose was among the first to receive the experimental treatment, but since then the options to receive the treatment inside and outside the Lehigh Valley have expanded.

Last week St. Luke’s, which also offers the treatment at its Easton and Warren campuses, began using it on patients at its Miners Campus in Schuylkill County. LVHN now offers treatment at nine locations: LVH-Cedar Crest, LVHN-Tilghman, Coordinated Health-Bethlehem, Coordinated Health-Hazleton, LVH-Hazleton, LVH-Pocono, LVH-Muhlenberg, LVH-Schuylkill and LVH-17th Street.

LVHN spokesperson Brian Downs said the health network can treat 130 patients per week with the drug, with plans to expand treatment options.

The health networks aren’t the only entities in the Lehigh Valley offering the treatment. Country Meadows Retirement Communities began offering monoclonal antibody treatment at its Bethlehem campus in mid-January.

Because of limited supply, monoclonal antibody treatment is reserved for those at high risk of experiencing complications from COVID-19, such as people who have respiratory issues, are overweight and over age 65.

The drugs are not authorized for patients already hospitalized with COVID-19. According to the FDA, there was no observed benefit in hospitalized patients. Because of the drugs’ experimental nature, all the health systems that receive them are required to follow the same guidelines for patient assessment, documentation, administration and reporting of adverse events.

Debra Hauze, 54, who received monoclonal treatment from LVHN, said she received the treatment on Jan. 15 and felt better three days later.

“By Monday, I was feeling better,” Hauze said. “I was able to get up and walk around and move around. I tried to go outside, get some fresh air.”

Hauze, of White Haven, Luzerne County, was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia in 2013 but her cancer is in remission. However, she said her immune system is still compromised, which also put her at high risk of suffering the worst effects of COVID-19.

Like many others, her case of COVID-19 left her exhausted and feeble.

“It was a chore taking a shower. To get up to take a shower really took a lot out of me,” Hauze said. “I have longer hair too, so when I tried to dry my hair, I couldn’t really lift my hand and my arm up to dry my hair. I would do five minutes and then I’d have to sit down — I was like that for a good five, six days.”

She said she still has a lingering cough and some wheezing that she didn’t have before the illness but overall feels much better.

Within the Lehigh Valley, efforts are being made to track the success of the treatment beyond just anecdotes shared by patients.

St. Luke’s spokesperson Sam Kennedy said the network doctors running the monoclonal antibody treatment program are conducting an academic study to quantify its success. The study is based on a subset of all patients treated thus far and estimates that the treatment reduced COVID19 hospitalizations by 50% and emergency room visits due to COVID-19 by 40% within the network. Kennedy said the data continues to be refined and will be submitted to peer-reviewed journals for consideration.

Dr. Jeffrey Jahre, infectious disease expert for St. Luke’s, said the success the network had with patients treated at its Easton Campus and Warren Campus in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, are why it added a new treatment location in Schuylkill County.

“This is being expanded because we know that it works — we’ve made the investment to do so, we have proof that it does save lives,” Jahre said.

Though Country Meadows has not treated nearly as many patients with the drugs as St. Luke’s or LVHN, it reports high levels of success. Lisa Torchia, vice president of clinical support services for Country Meadows, said it began offering the treatment at its Mechanicsburg campus in Cumberland County just before Christmas and at its Bethlehem campus shortly afterward.

She said so far they have treated more than 100 residents with monoclonal antibodies and 97% survived COVID-19 after receiving the treatment. Torchia added they will transport residents at any of their campuses to receive the treatment in Mechanicsburg or Bethlehem.