WRAL.com reports that an antibody infusion therapy designed to help coronavirus patients recover faster may prevent people from getting the virus. The clinical trial conducted by UNC, the National Institutes of Health and pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, in more than 100 nursing homes across the country, shows promising results, with the data suggesting that the antibodies can reduce the risk of infection by 80 percent.
Myron Cohen, MD, one of the study’s principal investigators, recognizes in the article that there is no magic bullet for COVID-19 and that the study contributes to the understanding of the pandemic.
“We have pretty strong evidence that in residents of nursing homes when we provided them these monoclonal antibodies, we were able to prevent the acquisition of COVID,” said Cohen, the Yeargan-Bate Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Microbiology and Immunology, and Epidemiology, about the therapy using manmade antibodies like the antibodies COVID-19 patients naturally produce.
David Wohl, MD, professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases, further explained the study.
“When adjusting for the number of cases that were occurring at that nursing home, [we] found an 80 percent reduction in development of COVID-19 disease among those who got the antibody compared to those who got placebo.”