The use of a monoclonal antibody treatment slashed COVID-19 mortality by 30%, according to an international study co-lead by a University of Colorado researcher.

Evusheld, a combination of two monoclonal antibodies, showed “remarkable” benefits in a global study involving more than 1,400 patients, UCHealth physician Adit Ginde said in a statement Wednesday.

Patients were treated either with the actual medicine or a placebo in hospitals in the United States, Europe, Singapore and Uganda. Twenty-nine of them were treated at UCHealth’s University of Colorado Hospital, the system said.

Those who received the actual medicine versus those who received a placebo did not necessarily recover faster from COVID-19, the study’s authors wrote. But it did cut 90-day mortality. 

“One out of every three patients who would have died without the treatment survived after receiving the treatment,” Ginde said. “That’s a remarkable signal for benefit and suggests that this and other similar treatments may save lives in patients with severe COVID-19.”

Evusheld is also approved, under emergency rules, to be given to at-risk people, like those with compromised immune systems, before they’re infected with COVID-19. Colorado, like the rest of the country, receives regular shipments of the drug from the federal government for distribution.