The Promise of a New Treatment

cases of the virus. Japan is facing a resurgence of COVID nineteen. The country had contained its initial wave of COVID nineteen earlier this year, but now infections that were first concentrated in the capital have spread to other urban areas. Regions that went for months without cases have become new hotspots. The patient demographic in this new wave has changed, too. The virus was first spreading among younger people who were less likely to get seriously ill. Now it's expanding to

the elderly. That's a major concern in the country with the world's oldest population. In the US, talks to break an impass over a new virus relief package have become increasingly urgent. Millions of jobless Americans were left without additional aid after Republicans and Democrats failed to reach a deal on a new stimulus package. The Senate is scheduled to

leave for an extended break on Friday. The parties remain far apart art on some of the biggest sticking points, including extending the supplemental six hundred dollars a week that has kept many unemployed people from falling into poverty. Meanwhile, the White House is exploring whether President Donald Trump can act on his own to extend the benefits and eviction protection,

according to people familiar with the matter. Finally, the World Health Organization says the US can still fight the spread of the disease. Maria van Kirkhove, the who's chief epidemiologist on COVID, said that by staying home and wearing masks, the country can still change its catastrophic infection trend. And now for today's main story, The drug company Eli Lily is about out to start testing it's COVID nineteen antibody drug in nursing homes. Vaccines may not work as well

on elderly people or those with compromised immune systems. Since these are the very groups most at risk for severe disease or death if they contract the coronavirus, a successful antibody treatment could have a marked effect on lowering the pandemic's death. Toll I talked to reporter Riley Griffin about the new drug and the promise of antibody treatments. Tell us a little bit about Eli Lillian companies. So called antibody therapy. It's a little of a lesser known approach

to counturing COVID nineteen. So I was hoping you could walk us through it. Yes, So Lily is co developing what's known as a monoclonal antibody with a Canadian startup, Absilera Biologics, and these neutralizing antibodies you may have heard that term before. They're tailored to mimic immune responses to the virus. Other companies racing to come up with similar treatments include Astra Zenica and VERB Biotechnology in partnership with

Glaxo Smith Klein. The best known treatment of this kind is a to antibody cocktail from Regeneraan, which actually received a whopping four fifty million dollar award from the U. S. Government's Operation Warp Speed project to that very end, and so maybe you could talk us through where Lily stands right now in terms of their clinical trials. Lily's antibody, which was isolated from one of the very first COVID nineteen patients, is now actually going into phase three clinical trials.

That's the latest stage of development, and Lily is taking a single antibody approach. It's hoping that this therapy will work both as a treatment for those with COVID nineteen the disease, and as a prophylaxis which can prevent those from contracting the illness. To that end, Lily is actually studying the drug in nursing homes where the elderly are

at risk of exposure. So in a lot of clinical studies that have launched in a similar setting, and there aren't many, but in those that have, the point is, if you notice that there's an outbreak in a nursing home, what do you do next? And these studies would ultimately enroll the population on the therapy and you could see who then contracted it thereafter. Given its a population that is so very much at risk, So how does this antibody approach fit into the overall larger landscape of therapeutics

and vaccines. Antibody treatments are seen as a compliment to vaccines, which may not elicit the necessary immune response when administered to elderly patients or those with compromised immune systems. And that's a that's a lingering question that we all have, is how is any vaccine going to work um in the elderly, in the immunocompromised, not just among the young

the healthy. It's honestly, it's increasingly evident that we're going to need effective treatments for COVID nineteen in addition to those inoculations that can prevent against contracting the virus. Though there are a hundred and sixty vaccines in various stages of development, and a handful of course in late stage human studies, we don't know how each is going to

work in every specific population. We're getting closer and closer to seeing one of those candidates reached the stage in which they could get an emergency use authorization to be deployed two populations like healthcare workers. This is a really historic feat just thinking about how the industry has mobilized to bring a shot across the finish line and under

a year. It's really never been done before. Are But I want to be clear here that no vaccine candidate yet looks like it could be a silver bullet for squashing the pandemic. There remain these lingering questions about how many doses will be needed, how much immunity they will offer, how durable that immunity will ultimately be, and what populations they will work to protect. And really that's all before we get into these other questions of production, distribution, access,

and price. So some pharmaceutical industry CEOs who have been speaking with think that a vaccine may be needed seasonally for the indefinite future, if the virus persists, if it mutates, or if we're simply not able to get the herd immunity needed to really crush COVID nineteen. What does the US government and in particular Wall Street think of this approach. Yeah, so the the US certainly is deploying capital to that end. We saw the award to Regenera on for its dual

in a body approach. Um, they're making investments here like they have with vaccines, and through the same operation warp speed effort. We're also seeing the National Institutes of Health working with these companies to conduct studies of monoclonal antibodies and similar antibody therapies. Meanwhile, you asked about Wall Street investors really consider this to be an important quote unquote

plan b um. If the vaccine approach doesn't pan out as it initially hoped, which is quite possible, what challenges could Lily or really any of the other producers of monoclonal antibodies have in bringing this treatment to market. Well, Manufacturing the antibodies will both be challenging and very costly. Um. Lily told us just last week that it's likely to spend more than million this year loan on COVID related

R and D and manufacturing. Chief financial off a Sir Joshua Smiley actually noted that there's quite a limited amount of capacity in this world for this type of manufacturing, so they're currently working to build that out and reconfigure plants so that they can produce more than one hundred thousand doses before year end. A antibody approach is not

like a pill. It's not like a small molecule. That's that's fairly cheap and can be done and mass It's a very complex technology that is costly, and they're going to be lingering questions about how to price antibody responsibly should one come to market, but also how you reach that scale and do so quickly if one should prove

successful in the clinic. You know, it's a historic feat that we're seeing vaccines and therapeutics reach late stage trials and get closer to securing an emergency use authorization that would allow us to move these these important pharmaceutic goal products to healthcare workers, to frontline workers, and then beyond um. We're seeing the US, the UK, Japan reach deals to secure doses of these products should any proof successful in the clinic. But ultimately, broader success will mean more than

crossing a finish line. It will mean we as a society have the wherewithal to produce, to provide, to pay, to protect ourselves from COVID nineteen and any other viruses that could one day come. That was Riley Griffin and that's it for our show today. For coverage of the outbreak from one bureaus around the world, visit Bloomberg dot com slash coronavirus and if you like the show, please leave us a review and a rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It's the best way to help more listeners

find our global reporting. The Productnosis Daily edition is produced by Topor foreheads Jordan Gospoure, Magnus Hendrickson and me Laura Carlson. Today's main story was reported by Riley Griffin. Original music by Leo Sidron. Our editors are Francesco Levi and Rick Shine. Francesco Levi is Bloomberg's head of podcasts. Thanks for listening.