Doctors Encouraged By Antibody Treatments For COVID-19

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Nurse Janet Gilleran prepares to treat COVID-19 patient Mike Mokler with bamlanivimab, a monoclonal antibody drug from Eli Lilly, at the Respiratory Infection Clinic of Tufts Medical Center in Boston on Dec. 31, 2020.

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Craig F. Walker/Boston Globe via Getty Images

Shots — Health News
Low Demand For Antibody Drugs Against COVID-19

Unlike a clinical trial, this real-world experience doesn’t have a randomized comparison group, so doctors can’t say for sure that these patients are faring better. The NIH treatment advisory committee, which is currently ambivalent about the value of these drugs, will evaluate new data as it comes in, so it could revisit its recommendations when the Mayo results become available.

These encouraging findings may be swaying doctors who weren’t sure they wanted to refer their patients for treatment. Razonable says patients are also becoming less skeptical.

«Initially there were more ‘declines’ than ‘accepts,’ but now we’re actually seeing more ‘accepts’ than ‘declines,’ » he says.

And even though it takes a lot of person-power to provide this treatment, Razonable and Huang believe they’re actually reducing the overall workload, by keeping patients out of the hospital.

You can contact NPR Science Correspondent Richard Harris at [email protected].

• COVID treatments
• COVID-19
• monoclonal antibodies