INDIANAPOLIS — Eli Lilly and Company announced an agreement with the U.S. government to supply 300,000 vials of bamlanivimab, an antibody treatment for COVID-19.
The $375 million deal counts on bamlanivimab being granted an Emergency Use Authorization by the FDA. The agreement also allows the U.S. government to purchase up to an additional 650,000 vials through June of 2021.
"Lilly has leveraged our deep scientific capability to fight this pandemic and we are proud of our efforts to develop potential medicines to combat COVID-19. Supply agreements with governments – such as this one with the U.S. government to meet Operation Warp Speed goals – are fundamental to enable the most widespread and equitable access to our potential therapy," said David A. Ricks, Lilly's chairman and CEO.
Lilly believes it will be able to manufacture up to one million doses of bamlanivimab by the end of 2020.
Bamlanivimab is designed to block viral attachment and entry into human cells, neutralizing the virus, potentially preventing and treating COVID-19. Bamlanivimab came from the collaboration between Lilly and AbCellera to create antibody therapies for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.
It has already gone through a study on hospitalized patients and is undergoing a second study on patients not hospitalized and for the prevention of COVID-19 in residents and staff at long-term care facilities.
U.S. government officials put an early end to the study testing an Eli Lilly antibody drug for people hospitalized with COVID-19 because it doesn't seem to be helping them.
Independent monitors had paused enrollment in the study two weeks ago because of a possible safety issue. But on Monday, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which sponsors the study, said a closer look found no safety problem but a low chance that the drug would prove helpful for hospitalized patients.
In a statement Lilly notes that the government is continuing a separate study testing the antibody drug in mild to moderately ill patients, to try to prevent hospitalization and severe illness. The company also is continuing its own studies testing the drug.
