Soumya Swaminathan, the World Health Organization's (WHO) chief scientist, said during a virtual briefing on Monday that the UN health agency was expecting to be updated on a pause of the US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly's trial of its monoclonal antibody treatment for the coronavirus disease this or next week
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th October, 2020) Soumya Swaminathan, the World Health Organization's (WHO) chief scientist, said during a virtual briefing on Monday that the UN health agency was expecting to be updated on a pause of the US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly's trial of its monoclonal antibody treatment for the coronavirus disease this or next week.
"We are still waiting for details of that, but obviously the Data Safety Monitoring [Board] Committee is a committee that looks at the blinded data, so the investigators are not aware of what the issues are. I think we will hear something more later this week or next week about that particular study," Swaminathan said.
Last week, Eli Lilly spokeswoman Molly McCully said that the treatment's trial was put on hold by health regulators due to its safety concerns.
Eli Lilly's trial is one of several that are part of the US National Institute of Health's "Activ" program, which aims to the development of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. The trial is backed by Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration's initiative to manufacture and distribute vaccines.
The pharmaceutical company is currently testing a combination of two lab-engineered immune system proteins called monoclonal antibodies to treat severely ill COVID-19 patients. The treatment is similar to the one made by Regeneron that was given to President Donald Trump, among other treatments, earlier this month after he tested positive for the coronavirus.
The decision by Eli Lilly comes after Johnson & Johnson announced that it had learned of an "unexplained illness" in one of the volunteers that prompted it to pause its phase 3 coronavirus vaccine trial earlier this month.
