An experimental treatment greatly reduced the risk of hospitalization and emergency room visits in people who contracted COVID-19, according to the maker of the drug and investigators running a clinical trial. California-based Eiger BioPharmaceuticals and investigators running the TOGETHER trial say (pdf) that the treatment, Peginterferon Lambda, cut the risk of needing hospital care by 50 percent and death by 60 percent in a phase 3 trial measuring the results through the 28th day after receiving the treatment. A single injection of the treatment was compared to placebo in a trial in Brazil featuring 1,936 patients who had mild or moderate COVID-19 and were designated as high-risk for progression to more serious forms of the illness. Approximately 84 percent of the patients were vaccinated. The trial stretched into the period of time after the Omicron virus variant became dominant in many countries around the world. Of the patients who received Lambda, …