Eli Lilly to Supply Bamlanivimab Only as Combination Therapy to U.S. Government

Eli Lilly has revised its supply deal with the U.S. government to focus on distributing the company’s COVID-19 antibody bamlanivimab along with another antibody, etesevimab — a combination that has proven to be effective against variant strains of the Sars-CoV-2 virus which causes COVID-19 infections.

The company said it will ship extra doses of etesevimab for use with already-delivered treatment courses of bamlanivimab so the two may be administered together. The U.S. government previously agreed to buy a total of 1.45 million doses of bamlanivimab for delivery by March 31 (DID, March 1). But the modified agreement means that 350,856 doses of bamlanivimab meant for solo delivery through the end of last month have been cancelled.

Bamlanivimab received an Emergency Use Authorization as a solo COVID-19 treatment in November and was granted authorization as a combination therapy with etesevimab in February (DID, Feb. 11). But HHS recently announced it would stop nationwide distribution of bamlanivimab because of concerns that variants of SARS-CoV-2 were showing resistance to the drug when administered by itself (DID, March 29).

Eli Lilly released phase 3 trial data in March showing the combination therapy reduced the risk of COVID-19-related hospitalization and death by 87 percent and demonstrated efficacy against coronavirus variant strains. — Jason Scott