Even as the delta variant drives more COVID-19 patients to hospitals, treatments are getting more effective at saving them.”The proportion of people that survive COVID-19 is a lot better than it was when we first started treating COVID,” said TriHealth Dr. Stephen Blatt. “In fact, some studies have come out that say patients are about twice as likely to live with COVID infection if they get admitted to the hospital than they were when we first started treating COVID in early 2020.”Right now, one of the frontline treatments is monoclonals. Those are lab-made antibodies that can be given in an infusion as an outpatient treatment.“It’s kind of like getting an external vaccination with just the antibodies of the protein that fight the virus,” Blatt said.After monoclonals, Blatt said, the normal progression of treatment goes in stages to antivirals like Remdesivir. For those who will need oxygen, the next step is steroids and then even more powerful anti-inflammatories if needed.“It’s pretty well laid out what medications to use at various stages of the disease. If you don’t progress, you don’t need those more serious drugs that patients need when they get very ill,” Blatt said.There are also new and promising COVID-19 treatment drugs in the pipeline.Clinical Trial and Consulting Services, headquartered in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky is doing research on a drug from Humanigen called Lenzilumab.“So, what we’re doing is adding treatment options for the caregivers for critically ill patients,” said CTI founder and CEO Tim Schroeder.Schroeder said Lenzilumab has that was originally developed for cancer treatments but was found to be effective in treating COVID.“It looks to be about a 50 percent reduction in the primary endpoint, which essentially was to keep people off of ventilators,” Schroeder said.The FDA is reviewing the data from the Lenzilumab studies now to consider if it will give emergency approval.
Even as the delta variant drives more COVID-19 patients to hospitals, treatments are getting more effective at saving them.
“The proportion of people that survive COVID-19 is a lot better than it was when we first started treating COVID,” said TriHealth Dr. Stephen Blatt. “In fact, some studies have come out that say patients are about twice as likely to live with COVID infection if they get admitted to the hospital than they were when we first started treating COVID in early 2020.”
Right now, one of the frontline treatments is monoclonals. Those are lab-made antibodies that can be given in an infusion as an outpatient treatment.
“It’s kind of like getting an external vaccination with just the antibodies of the protein that fight the virus,” Blatt said.
After monoclonals, Blatt said, the normal progression of treatment goes in stages to antivirals like Remdesivir. For those who will need oxygen, the next step is steroids and then even more powerful anti-inflammatories if needed.
“It’s pretty well laid out what medications to use at various stages of the disease. If you don’t progress, you don’t need those more serious drugs that patients need when they get very ill,” Blatt said.
There are also new and promising COVID-19 treatment drugs in the pipeline.
Clinical Trial and Consulting Services, headquartered in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky is doing research on a drug from Humanigen called Lenzilumab.
“So, what we’re doing is adding treatment options for the caregivers for critically ill patients,” said CTI founder and CEO Tim Schroeder.
Schroeder said Lenzilumab has that was originally developed for cancer treatments but was found to be effective in treating COVID.
“It looks to be about a 50 percent reduction in the primary endpoint, which essentially was to keep people off of ventilators,” Schroeder said.
The FDA is reviewing the data from the Lenzilumab studies now to consider if it will give emergency approval.
