Eli Lilly's Covid-19 antibody treatment shows promise, company says

US drug giant Eli Lilly's monoclonal antibody treatment is effective in reducing levels of the novel coronavirus in patients and appears to be able to keep them from having to go go the emergency room or hospital, the company said.

On Wednesday, the firm said that a combination of two antibodies, against treatment with just one, which had already been tested, appeared to be more "robust".

Its results, for which only limited data has yet been provided, appeared to be in line with others from rival Regeneron from that company's own cocktail of monoclonal antibody treatment.

Preliminary findings showed that the amount of virus in patients' nasal swabs reduced after 11 days.

A "statistically significant" reduction in viral levels was also evident three and seven days following infection, the 268 patient strong study showed.

Elli Lilly is in talks for its single antibody treatment with regulators globally and has already filed for emergency use authorisation with the US Food and Drug Administration.

The company expects to file for EUA for its cocktail treatment from the FDA in November and for full approval by mid-2021.

As many as 1.0m doses of the single antibody version of the treatment, LY-CoV555, may be available by the last quarter of 2020 and 100,000 already in October.

Only 50,000 doses of the combination treatment will be ready by quarter four of 2020.