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Testing of Eli Lilly COVID-19 Drug Paused for Safety Reasons

VOA News

   Another pharmaceutical companyhaltedtesting of an experimental COVID-19
   drug treatment because of safety concerns.

   U.S.-based Eli Lilly and Company announced Tuesday that the clinical
   trial of its coronavirus antiviral drug had beenpausedby independent
   monitors "out of an abundance of caution," but did not go into details.

   The drug, which Eli Lilly is developing with Canadian-based biotech
   firmAbCellera, is part of a class of treatments known as monoclonal
   antibodies, which are made to act as immune cells that scientists hope
   can fight off the virus. The antibody therapy was similar to one given
   to U.S. President Donald Trump after he tested positive for COVID-19
   earlier this month.

   The study, which launched in August, aimed to enroll 10,000
   hospitalized coronavirus patients in the United States.

   Eli Lilly applied to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for
   emergency authorization for the drug to be used for mild to moderate
   cases of COVID-19 infections based on preliminary results from a
   different clinical trial.

   A day before the pause, U.S. drug maker Johnson & Johnsonhaltedits
   late-stage clinical trials of its experimental vaccine after a
   participant was diagnosed with an unexplained illness.

   Johnson & Johnson had just launchedawide scale test of its single-dose
   vaccine involving 60,000 volunteers across more than 200 locations in
   the United States and internationally, including Argentina, Brazil,
   Chile, Mexico and South Africa.

   The Johnson & Johnson vaccine trial is the second to be put on hold
   after a volunteer became ill after receiving the vaccine.
   U.S.-baseddrugmakerAstraZeneca halted its late-stage trial of a vaccine
   developed with the University of Oxford early last month after a
   volunteer in Britain was diagnosed with transverse myelitis, an
   inflammatory syndrome that affects the spinal cord and is often sparked
   by viral infections.

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