Speaker 1: It's Thursday, October eight. I'm Oscar Ramirez from the Daily
Speaker 1: Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is reopening America.
Speaker 1: More good news on treatments for COVID nineteen. Pharmaceutical company
Speaker 1: Eli Lily has requested the emergency use authorization of its
Speaker 1: antibody based treatment for people with mild to moderate symptoms
Speaker 1: of coronavirus. The treatment is similar to the one that
Speaker 1: President Trump received, and they could have one thousand doses
Speaker 1: ready this month and one million by the end of
Speaker 1: the year. Peter loftus healthcare reporter at the Wall Street Journal,
Speaker 1: joins us for more. Pharmaceutical company Eli Lily has requested
Speaker 1: the emergency use authorization of an experimental antibody based treatment
Speaker 1: that they have for COVID nineteen. This is similar to
Speaker 1: what the President was getting this monoclonal antibodies. He got
Speaker 1: it from a company called Regeneron, but Eli Lily has
Speaker 1: something similar and they're saying that there's works okay and
Speaker 1: in clinical trials that they've been going through already, and
Speaker 1: they think that they can seek approval as early as
Speaker 1: the next month. Peter tell us a little bit more
Speaker 1: about this one. Well, yes, it is a similar approach
Speaker 1: to what I think a lot of people have heard
Speaker 1: in the news about one of the treatments that President
Speaker 1: Trump got, an antibody based treatment. In this case with
Speaker 1: Eli Lially, what they did was they formed a partnership
Speaker 1: with another company where they actually took a blood sample
Speaker 1: from one of the first people in the US to
Speaker 1: recover from COVID nineteen and they isolated certain antibodies in
Speaker 1: the blood sample. These are things produced by the immune
Speaker 1: system that helped someone overcome a virus and infection, and
Speaker 1: so then to make a drug out of that, you
Speaker 1: essentially clone that antibody and make bigger quantities of it
Speaker 1: and then confuse it in people to test it. And
Speaker 1: so that's what Eli Lily has done. They've spent the
Speaker 1: last several months manufacturing doses of this and then testing
Speaker 1: them in various studies. And so what they're seeking authorization
Speaker 1: for is to use this antibody based drug as a
Speaker 1: treatment for people who are recently diagnosed with COVID and
Speaker 1: have mild moderate disease, and with the hopes that the
Speaker 1: antibody would actually prevent that disease from getting worse and
Speaker 1: keep people out of the hospital. And so ELI only
Speaker 1: has some results from the studies so far that suggests
Speaker 1: that this antibody can do that. It's so interesting kind
Speaker 1: of getting this education as we go through this pandemic,
Speaker 1: how a lot of these therapeutics and treatments are being made.
Speaker 1: And early on we were talking about convalescent plasma, literally
Speaker 1: taking the blood that has antibodies and it from people
Speaker 1: that have had COVID and recovered and putting that into people.
Speaker 1: Now we're going through these treatments. As you said, we're
Speaker 1: using those same antibodies and making clones of them and
Speaker 1: kind of making these treatments from that. So it really
Speaker 1: is interesting how these things are developing. Tell us about
Speaker 1: the study they started it in nursing homes and tell
Speaker 1: us how it worked and with the effectiveness of it.
Speaker 1: The first study for this drug was actually the inhospitalized patients,
Speaker 1: and that was a very small study and they haven't
Speaker 1: said a ton about that study, but I think they
Speaker 1: had what they considered promising results, and then they moved
Speaker 1: on to somewhat bigger study in non hospitalized patients. So
Speaker 1: these would be people who have a diagnosis, maybe have
Speaker 1: some symptoms, but they haven't yet gotten to a severe stage.
Speaker 1: So they've tested, you know, having those people come into
Speaker 1: a clinic and giving them the infusion and then seeing
Speaker 1: how they do. The nursing home aspect of it is
Speaker 1: from yet another study where they're actually bringing the antibody
Speaker 1: out to various nursing homes if that nursing home has
Speaker 1: or looks like it's going to have an outbreak, say
Speaker 1: if there's one case of COVID. What they then do
Speaker 1: is they test the antibody in other residents and staff
Speaker 1: in the nursing home, either to treat any existing disease
Speaker 1: that they may have gotten from this emerging outbreak, or
Speaker 1: even for its potential to prevent disease. That's called the
Speaker 1: prophylactic use of the ant body, is to use it
Speaker 1: as a preventive measure, not only to treat an existing infection.
Speaker 1: Eli Lily. As I said earlier, they're hoping they can
Speaker 1: get this emergency use authorization or at least try to
Speaker 1: go for it in November, but they're saying that they
Speaker 1: could already have a hundred thousand doses ready this month
Speaker 1: and as many as one million by the end of
Speaker 1: the year. So if they get that authorization, they're ready
Speaker 1: to go right away. It's very similar to like the
Speaker 1: vaccine candidates that we're going through. Their producing the doses
Speaker 1: and having them ready just in case they get approved.
Speaker 1: And just to clarify ELI, Lily has already filed for
Speaker 1: an emergency use authorization with the f d A, and
Speaker 1: so it's possible that that decision could come relatively soon,
Speaker 1: and that would be for the single antibody, the main
Speaker 1: one that I've been talking about to treat these mild
Speaker 1: to moderate cases. In addition to that they've been testing
Speaker 1: that the one antibody, they've been adding a second antibody,
Speaker 1: and so it's a two drug combination, and that's the
Speaker 1: one they are expecting to apply for in November. But
Speaker 1: in either case, you're right, they are making the doses,
Speaker 1: and they have certain targets for what they can produce
Speaker 1: by the end of the year, and what they've produced already,
Speaker 1: it is likely that, you know, if they were to
Speaker 1: get a government authorization relatively soon, there would be I
Speaker 1: think an imbalance in supply and demand. There would be
Speaker 1: a greater demand than doses available, and so I think
Speaker 1: there's going to be some work to do to figure
Speaker 1: out if there's certain types of patients that should be prioritized,
Speaker 1: and for instance, literally said today that it's possible that
Speaker 1: you could maybe reserved this initial supply of doses, maybe
Speaker 1: reserve them for people who are sixty five and older
Speaker 1: or who are overweight, because those are the groups that
Speaker 1: seem like they are probably most at risk of worsening
Speaker 1: to severe disease if there's not this treatment that prevents that.
Speaker 1: But you know, if approved, this could kind of fill
Speaker 1: this gap until the vaccines do get authorized and pushed
Speaker 1: through as well. So just interesting stuff and hopefully they
Speaker 1: can work it out and hopefully it's safe and effective.
Speaker 1: Peter loftis healthcare reporter at the Wall Street Journal. Thank
Speaker 1: you very much for joining us my pleasure. I'm Astar
Speaker 1: Ramirez and this has been reopening America. Don't forget effort
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