Iowa's severe COVID-19 outbreak brings experimental drug to state
Iowa will be among the first states in the country to receive an experimental drug to fight COVID-19.
MercyOne Medical Center confirmed Thursday to 糖心vlog that it is receiving information on how to administer bamlanivimab 鈥 a drug cleared for emergency use on Monday by the FDA.
MercyOne Infectious disease specialist Dr. Ravi Vemuri said Iowa will receive access to the medication because it has one of the worst COVID-19 outbreaks in the country.
鈥淗ospitals are told that we will get the agent based on what kind of caseload we are seeing in our communities,鈥 Vemuri said. 鈥淪o, obviously, Iowa is like no. 3 or 4 in the nation in terms of cases per day. So, I鈥檓 sure we鈥檒l be getting our fair share of this agent.鈥
According to Eli Lilly CEO Dave Ricks, the monoclonal antibody product will be given to patients who are at high risk with mild to moderate cases of COVID-19.
"Taking this drug within the first 10 days of symptoms, 70% of those people who would have gone to hospital will not,鈥 Ricks said.
Vemuri said MercyOne plans to use the medication on patients over 60 with heart disease, diabetes or obesity and children over 12 who are immunocompromised.
鈥淭here's potentially a huge pool of patients that would fall under that indication, and if we get only X amount, you know, we'll have to triage and decide who gets it and who doesn't,鈥 Vemuri said.
Ricks said bamlanivimab is the first drug in the world designed to neutralize COVID-19.