The efficacy and safety of bamlanivimab treatment against COVID-19: A meta-analysis

Background

Bamlanivimab is routinely used in the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in worldwide. We performed a meta-analysis to investigate the efficacy and safety of bamlanivimab treatment in patients with COVID-19.

Methods

We searched articles from Web of Science, PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library and MedRxiv between 30 January 2020 and August 5, 2021. We selected randomized clinical trials (RCTs) and observational studies with a control group to assess the efficiency of bamlanivimab in treating patients with COVID-19.

Results

Our meta-analysis retrieved 3 RCTs and 7 cohort studies including 14461 patients. Bmlanivimab may help outpatients to prevent hospitalization or emergency department visit (RR 0.41 95%CI 0.29 to 0.58), reduce ICU admission (RR 0.47 95%CI 0.23 to 0.92) and mortality (RR 0.32 95%CI 0.13 to 0.77) from the disease. The combination of bamlanivimab and etesevimab may had a greater potential for positive treatment outcome.

Conclusion

Bamlanivimab has demonstrated clinical efficacy on mild or moderate ill patients with COVID-19 to prevent hospitalization, reduce severity and mortality from the disease. Combinations of two or more monoclonal antibody increase the effect. Well-designed clinical trials to identify the clinical and biochemical characteristics in COVID-19 patients’ population that could benefit from bamlanivimab are warranted in the future.

Key points