Lilly's new COVID-19 treatment that works against omicron receives emergency use approval
One of the best defenses for people at high risk of being hospitalized with COVID-19 — aside from vaccination — has been treatment with a class of therapies known as monoclonal antibodies. But omicron proved resistant to most of these.
Now Eli Lilly & Co. has won emergency use approval for a new monoclonal antibody treatment that promises to be effective not just against omicron but a broad spectrum of coronavirus variants, company officials said.
Mark Williams, senior medical director for Lilly’s global COVID-19 team, said it's a powerful antibody that the company calls broadly neutralizing.
“It seems to work against every known variant of interest or concern that we have tested it with,” said Williams. “We think it’s just what’s needed at this time in terms of the omicron, another tool in the tool box.”
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Last month the Food and Drug Administration at least temporarily revoked emergency use authorization for two treatments, one from Eli Lilly and one from Regeneron, saying that they were not effective against omicron. The agency left the door open for bringing these treatments back should a new variant arise against which they are successful.
Lilly’s new second generation monoclonal antibody, bebtelovimab performed far better than its predecessors when tested against both the initial omicron variant and the Ba.2 subvariant, which is 1.5 times more transmissible than the already highly transmissible omicron variant.
Because this new monoclonal antibody is so potent, just a small dose can be administered through a temporary IV, taking as little as 30 seconds to infuse. Previous treatments could take more than an hour.
Infusion centers could start offering the antibody, which the government is distributing, as soon as this week for those who are eligible. The treatment is geared people with mild or moderate COVID-19 who have not been hospitalized but who are at high risk of developing severe disease.
Contact IndyStar reporter Shari Rudavsky at shari.rudavsky@indystar.com. Follow her on Facebook and on Twitter: @srudavsky.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Lilly's COVID-19 treatment against omicron gets emergency use approval
