For those at high risk, COVID-19-related hospitalization or death from any cause reduced with bamlanivimab\/etesevimab versus placebo<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/b><\/p>\n
FRIDAY, July 16, 2021 (HealthDay News) — For ambulatory patients with mild or moderate COVID-19 who are at high risk for progression to severe disease, bamlanivimab plus etesevimab infusion leads to a lower incidence of COVID-19-related hospitalization and death, according to a study published online July 14 in the New England Journal of Medicine<\/em>.<\/p>\n Michael Dougan, M.D., Ph.D., from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and colleagues randomly assigned a cohort of ambulatory patients with mild or moderate COVID-19 at high risk for progression to severe disease to receive a single intravenous infusion of a neutralizing monoclonal-antibody combination agent (bamlanivimab and etesevimab) or placebo (518 and 517 patients, respectively) within three days after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 diagnosis.<\/p>\n The researchers found that by day 29, 2.1 and 7.0 percent of patients in the bamlanivimab-etesevimab and placebo groups, respectively, had a COVID-19-related hospitalization or death from any cause (absolute risk difference, \u00e2\u0088\u00924.8 percent; relative risk difference, 70 percent). There were no deaths reported in the bamlanivimab-etesevimab group, while 10 deaths occurred in the placebo group, nine of which were designated as COVID-19-related. A greater reduction from baseline was seen in the log viral load at day 7 among patients receiving bamlanivimab plus etesevimab versus placebo (difference from placebo in change from baseline, \u00e2\u0088\u00921.20).<\/p>\n “While society moves toward ending the COVID-19 pandemic with widespread vaccination campaigns and efforts to achieve herd immunity, antibody therapy provides a potential treatment option to reduce the incidence of illness and death among vulnerable patients,” the authors write.<\/p>\n Several authors disclosed financial ties to biopharmaceutical companies, including Eli Lilly, which manufactures bamlanivimab plus etesevimab and funded the study. <\/p>\n