Eli Lilly, Vir Biotechnology and GlaxoSmithKline said March 29 the COVID-19 antibody cocktail they are jointly developing reduced the viral load by 70 percent over a seven-day period compared to a placebo.
The announcement is based on data from a mid-stage trial testing Eli Lilly's antibody bamlanivimab administered in combination with VIR-7831, an antibody made by Vir and GSK.
The FDA granted emergency use authorization to bamlanivimab Nov. 9 for use in patients with mild to moderate COVID-19.
On March 25, the U.S. government stopped distributing bamlanivimab alone, saying that the increasing emergence of coronavirus variants has made it ineffective as a solo antibody treatment. The U.S. still distributes Eli Lilly's COVID-19 antibody cocktail, a combination of antibodies bamlanivimab and etesevimab that recieved FDA emergency approval Feb. 9.
GSK and Vir on March 26 filed an FDA emergency use authorization application for VIR-7831 to treat mild to moderate COVID-19 infections.
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