COVID-19 Treatment Research Happening In Texas Shows Promising Results
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - New research for a COVID-19 treatment -- that officials say is showing promising results -- is being conducted in North Texas.
Baylor Scott & White is part of a trial using a combination of two antibody therapies to treat patients.
Early results published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) show the viral clearance is faster at day 11 and superior to both the placebo group and those using just one antibody therapy.
Participants come in for an hour-long infusion and are then monitored for an hour before going home.
Dr. Robert Gottlieb, the principal investigator for the study, says the earlier the treatment the better. "We have done another trial on the in-patient setting and the results are actually very different, and for good reason we think," he said. "We think that the first process is virally driven. So, if we get the virus level to come down we can help and hopefully decrease the risk for hospitalization. But when someone's hospitalized the disease state is more mature, the inflammation is different and it's very hard to put the genie back in the bottle."
Right now the combination therapy is only available to high- risk populations.
Dr. Gottlieb says the next step is to get emergency use authorization for the treatment.
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