Eli Lilly and Co said on Tuesday that the government-sponsored clinical trial of its COVID-19 antibody treatment similar to one taken by US President Donald Trump has been paused because of a safety concern.
Trump touted the Lilly drug, along with the antibody treatment from Regeneron that he received for his COVID-19, as virtual"cures" in a video he posted last week.The announcement comes one day after Johnson & Johnson said it was forced to pause a large high-profile trial of its experimental coronavirus vaccine because a volunteer fell ill. J&J said it does not yet know if that person was given the vaccine or a placebo.
It is not uncommon to pause drug trials to investigate safety concerns, and such actions do not necessarily indicate a serious problem. Because of the urgent need for drugs and vaccines to tackle a pandemic that has claimed over 1 million lives worldwide - and the speed with which they are being developed - these trials have come under intense scrutiny.
The Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical company did not comment on the implications for the paused trial, called ACTIV-3, which is testing the treatment on COVID-19 patients who require hospitalisation, or on its other ongoing trials. It is also testing the drug in nursing homes to see if it can prevent staff and residents from getting infected.The US Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
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