UnitedHealth Group is launching a study that will let thousands of Medicare patients receive in their homes a new COVID-19 treatment that could prevent hospitalizations.

In partnership with the drug company Eli Lilly, Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth said Friday it would enroll in the study up to 500,000 people across 46 states, including Minnesota, with at least 5,000 patients expected to receive the monoclonal antibody treatment. In high-risk patients with mild or moderate disease, the treatment is thought to reduce the risk of hospitalization or serious illness.

Last month, Mayo Clinic became the first health system in Minnesota to begin administering the drug therapy, which is similar to a treatment received earlier this year by President Donald Trump. Vaccines for COVID-19 have been getting a lot of attention in recent weeks, but the development of effective treatments remains crucial, said Ken Ehlert, the chief scientific officer at UnitedHealth Group.

“In most diseases, the way these things work is, even if you have a vaccine you still need treatments that actually can help avoid the consequences of some of these diseases,” Ehlert said.

The treatment is manufactured by Indiana-based Eli Lilly and called bamlanivimab. It must be infused and is thought to work best when administered to patients early in their disease.

The study will let patients track their symptoms on a daily basis and get tested quickly if it looks like they might have been infected by the virus that causes COVID-19. UnitedHealth’s division for health care services would then send a nurse to a patient’s home to administer the treatment, which includes a one-hour infusion.

The process of developing the treatment, which is being made available without charge to patients through a federal contract, has been challenging from the start, said Dr. Daniel Skovronsky, the chief scientific officer at Lilly.

In February, the National Institutes of Health obtained blood from a patient who was among the first in North America to recover from the disease, Skovronsky said. Researchers from Lilly and a biotech company looked in the patient’s blood to identify antibodies that could bind the spike protein and neutralize the virus.

In March and April, the companies found “a very potent antibody that could fully neutralize the virus” and is the basis for the therapy, Skovronsky said. The companies then launched studies in patients before receiving emergency use authorization from federal regulators last month.

“That was an incredibly busy 10 months from identifying the virus to the first authorization of the first therapy that was built to fight the virus,” he said. “That process normally takes us about 10 years across the pharmaceutical industry.”

UnitedHealth Group is the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, which is the nation’s largest health insurer. The study will be open to people with Medicare Advantage health plan coverage through the company, which will help identify those with a health history that puts them at greatest risk from COVID-19.

“Intercepting the disease before it escalates may help to keep people out of the hospital and reduce the overwhelming burden on the health care system,” Ehlert said in a statement.

While bamlanivimab has been approved for emergency use, it is not yet known if the drug is safe and effective for the treatment of COVID-19, although results so far are encouraging. One goal of the study, Ehlert said, is to help learn if there are subgroups of patients who could benefit most.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Fuente de la Información: https://www.startribune.com/unitedhealth-group-launches-covid-19-at-home-treatment-study/573289011/