US Buys More Doses of Eli Lilly’s COVID-19 Antibody Therapy

March 10, 2021 - Eli Lilly & Company recently announced that the US government has agreed to purchase a minimum of 100,000 doses of its COVID-19 antibody therapy combination for $210 million. 

The COVID-19 combination treatment of 700 milligrams of bamlanivimab and 1,400 milligrams of etesevimab will be allocated together through March 31, 2021.

So far, the government has already committed to purchase a total of 1.45 million doses of bamlanivimab alone, including more than 1 million doses that have been delivered. Additionally, 450,000 additional doses of the COVID-19 antibody therapy will be delivered by the end of March. 

The government will also have the option to purchase an additional 1.1 million doses through the end of November of this year. 

“In our clinical trials, Lilly's neutralizing antibody therapies significantly reduced the risk of hospitalizations and death," David A. Ricks, chairman and CEO of Eli Lilly & Company, said in the announcement.  

"The NIH recommendation provides additional guidance to clinicians treating high-risk patients with COVID-19, who now have another treatment option that could keep more people out of the hospital and save lives,” Ricks continued. 

At the end of October, HHS and the Department of Defense (DoD) made an agreement with Eli Lilly & Company to purchase the first doses of the COVID-19 antibody therapy.

Two months later, the government increased its purchase to an additional 650,000 doses of the therapy for $812.5 million. Allocation decisions are based on confirmed COVID-19 cases in each state and territory over the previous seven days based on data from the HHS collection platform. 

Eli Lilly & Company will begin shipping the additional doses immediately. The federal government will direct the distribution of bamlanivimab alone and bamlanivimab and etesevimab together. 

COVID-19 monoclonal antibodies are laboratory-made proteins that are specifically directed against the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. The therapies are designed to block the virus’ attachment and entry into human cells.

The recent purchase of Eli Lilly & Company’s combination therapy adds to the supply of neutralizing antibodies already available for use in the US. The government said it will provide neutralizing antibodies at no out-of-pocket cost to patients, but healthcare facilities may charge a fee for administration of the treatment. 

In mid-February, Eli Lilly & Company’s combination therapy treatment gained FDA emergency use authorization.

The approval was based on the Phase 3 BLAZE-1 trial, which showed that 2,800 milligrams of bamlanivimab and 2,800 milligrams of etesevimab together reduced coronavirus-related hospitalizations and deaths in high-risk patients by 70 percent in a Phase 3 study. 

The drug combination demonstrated statistically significant improvement on all key secondary endpoints, reduced viral load, and boosted symptom resolution. 

And across all 1,035 patients in the BLAZE-1 trial, there were only 11 adverse events in patients taking the therapy and 36 events in patients taking the placebo. 

Eli Lilly & Company highlighted that in the BLAZE-1 trial, the antibody combination proved consistent with results from other Phase 1, Phase 2, and Phase 3 trials evaluating these antibodies.

Just a week after FDA approval, the company partnered with local health systems to enhance access to crucial COVID-19 antibody therapies.  

The partnership will work to launch dedicated infusion center locations in northern and southern Indiana to provide individuals with access to the COVID-19 treatments. 

One hospital in southern Indiana, Ascension St. Vincent Evansville, opened a dedicated infusion center to serve high-risk COVID-19 patients. 

Eli Lilly and Company has also partnered with Community Health Network, Eskenazi Health, and Franciscan Health on an infusion center serving central Indiana, and with Saint Joseph Health System, Beacon Health System, and Goshen Health System on an infusion center in northern Indiana. 

So far, these infusion centers have helped to eliminate treatment barriers by delivering COVID-19 antibody therapies to over 1,700 coronavirus patients living in Indiana who are high risk.