Eli Lilly and Company announced it has entered into an agreement with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to study baricitinib as an arm in NIAID’s Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial. The study will investigate the efficacy and safety of baricitinib as a potential treatment for hospitalized patients diagnosed with COVID-19, beginning this month in the U.S. with a planned expansion to additional sites including Europe and Asia. Results are expected within the next two months.
Baricitinib, an oral JAK1/JAK2 inhibitor marketed as OLUMIANT®, is approved in more than 65 countries as a treatment for adults with moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis. The U.S. prescribing information includes boxed warnings regarding the use of baricitinib, including warnings about risk for developing serious infections, a risk that may be related to baricitinib’s effects on the immune system. Given the inflammatory cascade seen in COVID-19, baricitinib’s anti-inflammatory activity has been hypothesized to have a potential beneficial effect in COVID-19 and warrants further study in patients with this infection...
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