Lilly Blazes a trail in Covid-19 prevention

Antibodies, already authorised to treat mild to moderate Covid-19, could soon also be used to prevent the virus, a study of Lilly’s bamlanivimab in nursing homes suggests. To be eligible for the trial, called Blaze-2, nursing homes had to have had at least one confirmed coronavirus case. Across residents and staff receiving bamlanivimab, there was a 57% reduction in the risk of developing symptomatic Covid-19 compared with those receiving placebo. Among residents the figure was even more impressive, with an 80% reduction with bamlanivimab versus placebo. Lilly plans to speak to regulators about expanding bamlanivimab’s EUA; however, there are questions about the role of the antibody if the vaccine rollout goes well. The logistics of infusing nursing home residents on a large scale might be also be tricky. Other antibody developers are looking at prevention, and a notable player here is Astrazeneca with AZD7442, a long-acting antibody. This is given intramuscularly, which could give it an edge over bamlanivimab and Regeneron’s casirivimab/imdevimab, which are both intravenous. Glaxosmithkline also has a long-acting project, the intravenous VIR-7831, but that does not appear to be in any prevention studies; the pivotal Comet-Ice trial in outpatients is set to read out this quarter.