FLC | NIAID partners with Lilly to test RA drug in COVID-19 patients

NIAID partners with Lilly to test RA drug in COVID-19 patients

April 14, 2020

In conjunction with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Eli Lilly is planning a controlled trial to test rheumatoid arthritis drug Olumiant (baricitinib) in patients hospitalized with COVID-19. The study is starting this month in the U.S., and investigators eventually plan to expand testing to Europe and Asia.

The drug’s anti-inflammatory potential might hold a benefit for patients hospitalized with COVID-19, Lilly said in a statement. The project started in February when Benevolent AI, a U.K. artificial intelligence group, identified Lilly’s barticitinib as a possible COVID-19 treatment not only for its anti-inflammatory effects, but also an antiviral effect, Lilly Bio-Medicines president Patrik Jonsson told FiercePharma.

Lilly then conducted preclinical studies on its own and discussed the drug’s promise with independent investigators who had tested it in regard to COVID-19. Those studies featured small sample sizes and weren’t placebo-controlled, which limited the investigators' ability to draw conclusions from the findings.

“Now is the right time in a sophisticated way” to test the drug in a controlled study, Jonsson said. Investigators aim to enroll two hundred patients, he added, and the team expects results by late June. Then, if the work proves promising, Lilly would discuss the results with regulators.

Lilly isn’t alone in testing an existing immunology medicine against COVID-19. Other arthritis drugs in testing in COVID-19 include Sanofi and Regeneron’s Kevzara, Roche’s Actemra, Pfizer’s Xeljanz and the controversial hydroxychloroquine, a decades-old medicine also approved for lupus and malaria.

“We just hope that one of those interventions ... and hopefully several, can bring some hope,” Jonsson said.

Meanwhile, Lilly also unveiled plans to test an investigational monoclonal antibody, LY3127804, in pneumonia patients hospitalized with COVID-19. That trial is starting later this month in the U.S.

As the outbreak plays out, Lilly also provided an update on its supply. The company doesn’t expect any drug shortages and will keep making Olumiant available for its approved uses, plus potential further testing should the drug show promise in COVID-19.