Eli Lilly's COVID-19 monoclonal antibody treatment, bamlanivimab, is ineffective in treating patients infected with B.1.351, the novel coronavirus variant first identified in South Africa, according to a study published Jan. 28 in the medical preprint server bioRxiv.
The drugmaker also tested its antibody treatment against, B.1.1.7, the variant first identified in the U.K., finding it to be just as effective as it had been against earlier versions of the novel coronavirus.
The studies were not conducted using humans, but rather a manufactured pseudovirus containing mutations found in the two variants. The researchers found that the variant discovered in South Africa affected a wider range of antibodies.
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