The Ministry of Health will import Bamlanivimab, which prevents the disease from getting worse • The treatment will first be given to dialysis patients and organ transplant recipients • Doctors: "Will save from death patients at risk" • The substance is given by infusion and so far doses have been purchased for 1,000 patients
Corona patient in Israel // Photo: Efrat Eshel
Exposure: Against the background of the severe increase in coronary heart disease in the third wave of the epidemic in Israel, the Ministry of Health has brought a new product to Israel, which has been found to be effective in reducing the risk of severe disease in coronary heart disease patients.
The product, which is given a single infusion, is intended for about 1,000 patients, and in the first phase, the ministry has already brought about 400 doses of it.
Bamlanivimab is given only under medical supervision in hospitals, and yesterday it was given to a patient in the dialysis department at Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba. Israel Today has learned that it has been ordered by a number of hospitals, including Sheba Hospital in Tel Hashomer, Ichilov Tel Aviv. The valley in Afula, Kaplan in the streets and Assuta in Ashdod.
The drug is from the American pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly, and is only in the second phase of the medical study, but it received a special emergency permit in November 2020 for administration to corona patients by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) due to the severity of the epidemic.
The preparation is an antibody that acts against the corona virus protein and tries to weaken or neutralize it.
It is estimated that it was funded by the Ministry of Health, at a cost of about $ 1,200 per patient.
The innovative treatment is intended for patients under the age of 75 and is intended for administration in the first days after the discovery of the corona in patients with a mild to moderate condition.
According to studies, the drug showed a reduced risk of developing a serious illness and being hospitalized.
This is especially true in patients with medical risk factors, so the Ministry of Health has announced that the drug will be given in the first stage to dialysis patients and organ transplant recipients who have been found to be verified in Corona.
In a statement sent this week by Dr. Siegel Lieberant-Taub, head of the General Medicine Division at the Ministry of Health, to all hospital administrators about the new product, she wrote that "the Ministry of Health is working tirelessly to make treatments marked as effective in Corona patients". "Limited stock of the drug that will be available to hospitals free of charge."
The Israeli Infectious Diseases Association submitted a position paper to the Ministry of Health this week, in which it recommended that the HMOs set up a system to locate patients who meet the criteria for the preparation, and further emphasized that "since there are a large number of patients who meet the criteria," .
Dr. Keren Cohen-Hagai, a senior physician at the Nephrology Institute at Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba, gave the product to Corona patient yesterday and says that "dialysis patients are at high risk for severe morbidity and mortality from Corona. When we received the message from the Ministry of Health, we did not hesitate to ask that they give us the medicine.
"Because our patients are so dear to us, we felt we had to do everything to help us treat dialysis patients, prevent their deterioration and simply save them from death! To my delight, Hadas Rotem, director of the Ministry of Health's Pharmacy Division, immediately agreed and sent us the ampoules to the hospital. "Already yesterday, two dialysis patients were given the antibody, and we plan to give another patient the treatment as soon as possible."
The Friends of Medicine organization, one of the main organizations in the country that helps patients obtain medicines, has also contacted patients who have heard about the medicine, and the organization has asked the Ministry of Health to try to expedite an agreement to bring the medicine.
The organization said that "we would like to thank many good people in the Ministry of Health, who were able to quickly make the drug accessible in Israel as well."
Antibiotic therapy
Eli Lilly said that the company "does its best to make it accessible to patients in Israel with Bamlanivimab, which when given in the early stages of the disease, with mild to moderate symptoms, leads to early elimination of the virus from the patient's body and leads to improved disease symptoms." Neutralization, together with the vaccine of the population, constitutes an important therapeutic tier in the war against the corona. "