Eli Lilly Applies for Emergency Approval for Covid-19 Drug

The American drug company Eli Lilly has put in an application for emergency approval of its Covid-19 drug. While attention has mostly focused on research to develop a vaccine that generates immunity against the novel coronavirus, companies like Eli Lilly have also been developing drugs that could treat Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

The drug that Eli Lilly has been developing is unique in that it is meant to be administered as soon as people infected with the new coronavirus show symptoms. It has been seen to have the  potential to almost eliminate chances that infected people would need to be hospitalized before they recover.

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Other drugs being used to treat Covid-19, e.g. remdesivir, developed by rival pharmaceutical firm, Gilead originally to treat Ebola and the generic steroid dexamethasone are used to treat serious Covid-19 conditions in hospitals. Eli Lilly’s drug, for now called LY-CoV555, is meant to arrest mild or moderate symptoms and hence make hospital admission unnecessary.

Eli Lilly’s share rose by 2.6 per cent when the company announced that data from clinical trials prove its Covid-19 drug is efficient in reducing viral load and in relieving symptoms. There is also evidence that the drug is effective when taken by people at risk of developing fatal complications such as heart or kidney failure as a result of being infected with the new coronavirus.

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