Benzinga | Aug 30, 2021 03:55PM EDT

Can COVID-19 Antibody Treatment Help In High-Risk Cases? Mayo Clinic, nference Study Shows Potential

* Mayo Clinic and nference are jointly conducting artificial intelligence-powered studies evaluating monoclonal antibodies for COVID-19 in patients with an elevated risk of requiring hospitalization.

* The first of the two studies focused on Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:REGN) casirivimab/imdevimab cocktail or REGEN-COV.

* Using nference's natural language processing AI software, researchers assessed nearly 1,400 high-risk Mayo Clinic patients with mild to moderate cases of COVID, half of whom were given the antibody treatment.

* After two weeks, 1.3% of patients treated with antibodies had been hospitalized, compared to 3.3% of the control group. By the four-week mark, that gap had further widened between the two groups, with 1.6% and 4.8% hospitalization rates, respectively.

* The second study used nference's AI to examine the effects of Eli Lilly And Co's (NYSE:LLY) bamlanivimab.

* The analysis compared the results of bamlanivimab treatment in 2,335 high-risk COVID patients with those of an untreated control group.

* Related Content: Distribution Resumes Of Eli Lilly COVID-19 Antibody Therapies

* All-cause hospitalization rates were shown to be significantly lower in the antibody-treated group, clocking in between 1.4 and two percentage points lower than those in the control group after two, three, and four weeks.

* The researchers also studied ICU admission rates for both groups. The AI analysis found that while the control group's rate hovered around 1% at each interval, the antibody group's average admission rate maxed out at 0.56% after four weeks.

* Also Read: Mayo Clinic, nference AI Analysis Find No Real-World Link Between COVID-19 Shots And Clots

* Photo by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay