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Eli Lilly Halts Trial For COVID-19 Treatment On Hospitalized Patients

Eli Lilly Corporate Headquarters in Indianapolis.
Lauren Chapman/IPB News
Eli Lilly Corporate Headquarters in Indianapolis.

Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly has ended testing its COVID-19 antibody therapy on hospitalized patients. Earlier this month, Eli Lilly temporarily suspended the trial for the drug due to a safety concern. 

In a news release, the company said recent data showed there wasn’t a significant difference in outcomes for COVID-19 patients in advanced stages who received the treatment compared to those who did not.

The trial was evaluating recovery chances for severe cases when the drug was administered in combination with an antiviral medication that was recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

READ MORE: Study Pauses Are More Common, Essential To Clinical Trials

This study was being done in partnership with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and that was the only one testing bamlanivimab in COVID-19 hospitalized patients.

The pharmaceutical company will continue trials of the drug in other settings including nursing homes.

Contact reporter Samantha at  shorton@wfyi.org or follow her on Twitter at @SamHorton5.

Samantha Horton is the All Things Considered newscaster and a reporter at WFYI. She is a graduate from University of Evansville with a bachelor’s degree in international studies, political science and communication where she also swam all four years. Samantha has worked as a reporter at WNIN in Evansville, Side Effects Public Media, Indiana Public Broadcasting and the Kansas News Service. In 2022 she was one of two fellows with the NPR Midwest Newsroom and Missouri Independent investigating elevated blood lead levels in children.
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