Antibody therapy may lower hospitalisations, emergency visits, study finds

COVID-19 patients who were administered a novel antibody had fewer symptoms and were less likely to require hospitalisation or emergency medical care than those who did not receive the therapy, according to a new study.

The ongoing Phase II clinical trial, whose interim results were published in The New England Journal of Medicine, tested three different doses of LY-CoV555, a monoclonal antibody derived from the blood of a recovered COVID-19 patient.

The analysis indicated a reduced viral load in outpatients with mild to moderate cases of COVID-19 at the 2,800-milligram dosage level, along with reduced rates of hospitalisation and emergency medical care among patients at all dosage levels.