It has gone under the radar that Eli Lilly and Incyte's Olumiant has recently become the first JAK inhibitor to be approved anywhere for atopic dermatitis and the companies have been touting promising long-term data on the therapy as it expands beyond rheumatoid arthritis.  

Hot on the heels of positive news from its monoclonal antibody treatment, Lilly aims to seek emergency authorization for anti-inflammatory treatment Olumiant.

When the US FDA approved Olumiant (baricitinib) for RA, it insisted on a lower dose because of fears of blood clots. Now that an NIH trial has shown that the product plus Gilead’s Veklury (remdesivir) provided a statistically significant reduction in time to recovery versus remdesivir alone for hospitalized COVID patients, Olumaint may get an emergency use authorization from FDA to treat a condition that itself causes blood clots. That doesn't mean the black box is going away; it's just a reminder that there is as much magic and mystery to medicine sometimes as there is science.