MONDAY, June 1, 2020 (HealthDay News) — The first human trial of an antibody therapy to treat COVID-19 is underway, CNN reported Monday.
According to drug maker Eli Lilly, the phase 1 trial is designed to find if the drug is safe and well tolerated. Results are expected this month. If the drug does prove safe and effective, it could be available for use by the fall, according to CNN.
“Until now, scientists have been trying to repurpose medicines, drugs, that were designed for new diseases to see if they work in COVID-19, but as soon as this epidemic started, we got to work making a new medicine against this disease,” Dan Skovronsky, M.D., Eli Lilly’s senior vice president and chief scientific officer, told CNN. “Now we’re ready and testing it in patients.”
Eli Lilly is already manufacturing the antibody therapy. “If it does work, we don’t want to waste a single day, we want to have as much medicine as possible available to help as many people quickly,” Skovronsky said.
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