Eli Lil­ly demon­strates that 2 an­ti­bod­ies beat 1 for guard­ing against se­vere Covid-19. But can that solve the first an­ti­body’s prob­lem amid slow up­take?

It seems safe to say that two an­ti­bod­ies are bet­ter than one.

Eli Lil­ly re­leased the largest re­sults yet on Tues­day for their Covid-19 neu­tral­iz­ing an­ti­body cock­tail, an­nounc­ing that the com­bo re­duced deaths and hos­pi­tal­iza­tions in coro­n­avirus pa­tients by 70%. Across 1,000 pa­tients, there were 11 such events in the treat­ment group and 36 in the place­bo group.

The break­down for deaths alone was even stark­er: 10 in the place­bo group and 0 in the treat­ment group. Lil­ly added that the drug hit sec­ondary end­points for re­duc­ing vi­ral load and al­le­vi­at­ing symp­toms, al­though they did not dis­close num­bers.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER