COVID-19: Indianapolis-based company begins first human trial of antibody therapy

While some parts of the world are currently facing the peak of coronavirus pandemic, Eli Lilly and Company on June 1 reportedly said that it has started the first human trial of antibody therapy. According to an international media outlet, the first phase of the trial will test whether the therapy is safe and well-tolerated. While the result of the first phase is expected in late June, the company reportedly said that if the trial shows the treatment effective, it could be available by autumn. 

The Indianapolis-based company reportedly informed that the first COVID-19 patients being treated with therapy are hospitalised at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine in New York, Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles and Emory University in Atlanta. While speaking to an international media outlet, Dr Dan Skovronsky, who is Eli Lilly's senior vice president and chief scientific officer, said that until now, the scientists have been trying to repurpose medicines, drugs that were designed for new diseases to see if they work in COVID-19, but as soon as the epidemic started, the researchers got to work making a new medicine against the disease. 

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Skovronsky said that the company is now ready and testing the antibody in patients. As per reports, the treatment was created in collaboration with AbCellera, which is a biotechnology firm based in Canada. AbCellera acquired a blood sample from one of the first US patients who had recovered from the deadly disease, and the companies then sorted through millions of patient’s cells to find hundreds of antibodies. 

Monoclonal antibody therapy treatment 

According to an international media outlet, the Canada-base biotech firm selected the cells that they thought would be most potent and Lilly scientists then engineered the treatment, known as monoclonal antibody therapy. As per the researchers, the approach has worked to treat other illness as there are monoclonal antibody therapies that treat HIV, asthma, lupus, Ebola and some forms of cancer. 

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The scientists are still not sure if such therapy will work against COVID-19 although they also noted that when the treatment was used on cells in the lab, it blocked the ability of the virus to infect the cells. Skovronsky reportedly said that based on the results, the scientists got the green light to take the next step and prepare it to be tried in patients. Temporarily, the researchers are reportedly calling it ‘LY-CoV555’. 

Meanwhile, recently, a US-based biotechnology company has announced its plans to start enrolling 130 people to test a new experimental vaccine. Novavax said that the trial for coronavirus vaccine is planned to take place in two phases at two sites in the island nation. The Maryland-based company has named the potential COVID-19 vaccine as ‘NVX-CoV2373’ which is a perfusion protein made with proprietary nanoparticle technology. Novavax has incorporated an additional chemical that would enhance the response of the immune system and even stimulate greater levels of neutralising antibodies. 

(Image: Rep/Pixabay) 

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