The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Eli Lilly and Company and Incyte’s OLUMIANT® (baricitinib) for the treatment of COVID-19 in hospitalized adults requiring supplemental oxygen, non-invasive or invasive mechanical ventilation, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) with a recommended dose of 4-mg once daily for 14 days or until hospital discharge, whichever comes first.
“More than two years into the pandemic, COVID-19 is still hospitalizing many people and burdening our healthcare system. I’m grateful to have OLUMIANT as a treatment option for those who require various degrees of respiratory support, from supplemental oxygen to mechanical ventilation or ECMO,” said Andre Kalil, M.D., M.P.H., Professor of Medicine at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and principal investigator of the Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial 2 (ACTT-2) sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“I’m encouraged by the FDA’s full approval of OLUMIANT for the treatment of these patients based on results from the rigorous, placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized trials. While there are therapies currently available, there is still an urgent need for more options to help improve outcomes for patients hospitalized due to COVID-19.”
The FDA’s approval is supported by results from two randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 3 studies (ACTT-2 and COV-BARRIER, including the COV-BARRIER OS 7 addendum study). No new safety signals potentially related to the use of OLUMIANT were identified in the studies.
“Nearly one million people with COVID-19 have been treated with OLUMIANT (baricitinib) in approximately 15 countries worldwide,” said Patrik Jonsson, Lilly senior vice president, president of Lilly Immunology and Lilly USA, and chief customer officer. “Today’s full approval reflects both our confidence in OLUMIANT’s role in treating these hospitalized patients and Lilly’s tireless efforts to support the medical community and patients in the ongoing fight against COVID-19.”
Baricitinib has been available in the U.S. under Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) since November 2020. An EUA will remain in place for hospitalized pediatric patients 2 to less than 18 years old who require various degrees of oxygen support.
Lilly has submitted applications for regulatory approval or authorization to multiple regulatory agencies around the world and anticipates further regulatory decisions to follow.
The U.S. FDA-approved labeling for OLUMIANT carries a boxed warning for risk of serious infections, mortality, malignancy, major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) and thrombosis. Patients treated with OLUMIANT are at an increased risk of serious bacterial, fungal, viral and opportunistic infections leading to hospitalization or death, including tuberculosis. Higher rates of all-cause mortality and MACE have been observed with another JAK inhibitor versus tumor necrosis factor (TNF) blockers. Malignancies and thrombosis have occurred in patients treated with OLUMIANT and higher rates of each have been observed with another JAK inhibitor versus TNF blockers.
OLUMIANT is a once-daily, oral JAK inhibitor discovered by Incyte and licensed to Lilly.
