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An Eli Lilly drug designed to treat arthritis is the latest anti-inflammatory being tested as a potential treatment for seriously ill Covid-19 patients.

On Friday, Eli Lilly (ticker: LLY) said its drug baricitinib, which the Food and Drug Administration has approved as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, would be included in a large study run by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to test various potential therapies to treat Covid-19.

Called the Adaptive Covid-19 Treatment Trial, the randomized, controlled study will give patients potential treatments that include Lillys baricitinib and Gileads (GILD) remdesivir, while others will receive a placebo.

In an interview on Monday, the president of Lilly Bio-Medicines, Patrik Jonsson, said the decision to test baricitinib in Covid-19 patients came after the artificial-intelligence firm BenevolentAI published an article in the medical journal The Lancet arguing that the drug might be able to keep the virus from infecting lung cells.

The first priority is to see if baricitinib is effective in treating those patients, Jonsson said. The data needs to be compelling, but if thats the case, were also in the position to rapidly work with regulatory bodies across the globe.

The NIAID trial will test baricitinib in hospitalized patients with Covid-19. Jonsson said the first patient would be receive treatment at the end April, with data expected two months later. He said that hundreds of patients would receive baricitinib during the trial.

Other arthritis drugs are also being tested in Covid-19 patients, including at least two so-called IL-6 inhibitors, Sanofi (SNY) and Regenerons (REGN) Kevzara, and Roches (RHBBY) Actemra. Baricitinib is a JAK inhibitor, rather than an IL-6 inhibitor, but part of the theory for why it might help Covid-19 patients is the same as for the IL-6 inhibitors. The idea is that the drug could beat back the inflammation in the lungs that can cause serious complications in some Covid-19 patients.

Jonsson also said that there is a secondary hypothesis that baricitinib could have an antiviral effect. He said there is a hypothesis, laid out in BenevolentAIs Lancet article, that the drug could disrupt a particular receptor used by the virus that causes Covid-19 to infect lung cells.

Independent investigators have already run some small trials involving baricitinib. Jonsson said the company has been in touch with those scientists, though it hasnt been involved in the trials. What we have heard so far is the experience is a positive experience, he said, but the trials have involved small numbers of patients.

The NIAID trial will be key to finding answers about baricitinib in Covid-19, along with other drugs.

I am very proud of the partnership with NIAID, and I am very proud of the speed at which weve been able to act, Jonsson said.

Lilly also announced Friday it will begin a smaller Covid-19 trial late this month of a monoclonal antibody initially developed to treat cancer patients. The drug, called LY3127804, will be tested in patients hospitalized with Covid-19 who are at higher risk of developing acute respiratory distress syndrome. The trial will test whether the drug can diminish the need for ventilators, or keep those patients progressing to ARDS.

Shares of Lilly were down 0.9% early afternoon as the S&P 500 fell 1.5%.

Write to Josh Nathan-Kazis at josh.nathan-kazis@barrons.com

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Eli Lilly Arthritis Drug Will Be Tested in Seriously Ill Covid-19 Patients - Barron's

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