FRIDAY, Oct. 30, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Viral load was decreased at day 11 for patients with mild or moderate COVID-19 who received a single intravenous infusion of virus-neutralizing monoclonal antibody versus placebo, according to a study published online Oct. 28 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Peter Chen, M.D., from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, and colleagues randomly assigned 452 outpatients with recently diagnosed mild or moderate COVID-19 to receive either a single intravenous infusion of neutralizing antibody LY-CoV555 at one of three dose levels (700 mg; 2,800 mg; or 7,000 mg) or placebo in a phase 2 trial.
The researchers found that the mean decrease from baseline in the log viral load for the entire population was −3.81 at the time of the interim analysis, for elimination of more than 99.97 percent of viral RNA at day 11. The difference from placebo in the decrease from baseline was −0.53 (95 percent confidence interval, −0.98 to −0.08; P = 0.02) for patients who received the 2,800-mg dose of LY-Cov555, for a viral load that was 3.4-fold lower. Among patients who received the 700-mg dose or the 7,000-mg dose, smaller differences from placebo were seen in the change from baseline (−0.20 [95 percent confidence interval, −0.66 to 0.25; P = 0.38] and 0.09 [95 percent confidence interval, −0.37 to 0.55; P = 0.70], respectively). Compared with those who received placebo, patients who received LY-CoV555 had a slightly lower severity of symptoms on days 2 to 6. The percentage of patients with a COVID-19-related hospitalization or emergency department visit was 1.6 and 6.3 percent in the LY-CoV555 and placebo groups, respectively.
"Monoclonal antibodies like this have the potential to reduce the severity of COVID-19 for many patients, allowing more people to recover at home," Chen said in a statement.
Several authors disclosed ties to Eli Lilly, which is developing LY-CoV555 and funded the study.
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