Throughout the pandemic, our research groups continued their studies without interruption. In fact, Houston Methodist researchers submitted 32 more funding proposals during 2020 than they did the previous year. Many investigators quickly pivoted their research focus to COVID-19-related challenges by participating in more than 50 preclinical studies and clinical trials that resulted in more than 170 COVID-19-related published journal articles and 16,000 media placements.

A team of experts at Houston Methodist, led by Salazar, began participating in the clinical trials in hospitalized patients determining the safety and effectiveness of the combination mAb therapy from Regeneron containing two neutralizing mAbs called casirivimab and imdevimab in July 2020. Current data from the Regeneron REGN-COV2 trial show that trial participants receiving the experimental therapy had a lower risk of death or need for mechanical ventilation than those in the placebo group.

Houston Methodist is also actively involved in the clinical studies investigating how well Eli Lilly’s bamlanivimab, a mAb therapy similar to Regeneron’s cocktail, safely and effectively prevents mild COVID-19 infections from becoming more serious. Clinical trial lead Howard Huang, MD, interim chief, division of pulmonary, critical care and sleep and his teams are administering a single intravenous infusion of the drug to patients who have recently received a positive COVID-19 test and show mild to moderate symptoms in the hopes of intervening before patients have a chance to develop more serious symptom, thereby reducing COVID-19-related hospitalizations and emergency department visits. Huang and his team are also involved in similar studies of the Regeneron mAb’s in patients with mild to moderate symptoms.

In November, the FDA issued an emergency use authorization for both the Regeneron and Eli Lilly therapies for treating mild to moderate COVID-19 infections in patients who are at high risk of becoming dangerously ill. The quick progression from beginning investigational clinical studies on newly developed drugs to having the ability to treat patients not involved in a study is a prime example of translational research in action.