U.S. Govt. Purchases 100k Doses of Lilly's COVID-19 Antibody Cocktail

The U.S. government will purchase a minimum of 100,000 doses of Lilly’s bamlanivimab (LY-CoV555) 700 mg and etesevimab (LY-CoV016) 1400 mg together. Bamlanivimab and etesevimab recently received emergency use authorization for the treatment of recently diagnosed, mild to moderate COVID-19 in patients who are at high risk of progressing to severe COVID-19 and/or hospitalization.

Additionally, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently updated the COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines to recommend the use of bamlanivimab plus etesevimab for the treatment of outpatients with mild to moderate COVID-19 who are at high risk of clinical progression.

The purchase agreement is for $210 million and doses will be delivered through March 31, 2021. The U.S. government will have the option to purchase up to an additional 1,100,000 doses through November 25, 2021, under the agreement subject to product availability and medical need in the U.S.

The government has already committed to purchase a total of 1,450,000 doses of bamlanivimab alone, which includes more than 1 million doses that have been delivered and an agreement to deliver 450,000 additional doses by March 31, 2021. The government said it will provide neutralizing antibodies at no cost to patients, although healthcare facilities may charge a fee for administration.

Lilly will begin shipping the additional doses immediately.