The U.S. government has struck a deal with Eli Lilly and Co. to secure up to 1 million doses of its experimental COVID-19 antibody drug, a therapeutic similar to the treatment President Donald Trump received during his illness.
As of now, the government will pay the company $375 million for 300,000 doses, which are to be delivered within two months after receiving emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Eli Lilly announced on Wednesday.
After that, the federal government has the option to purchase 650,000 more vials before June 30, bringing the total cost to roughly $1.19 billion.
“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,” Eli Lilly’s CEO, David Ricks, said in a statement.
This month, the company submitted a request to the FDA for emergency use of the drug for patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 symptoms, after failing to show that the drug could help those with more severe symptoms, CNBC reported.
The experimental drug, called bamlanivimab, belongs to a class of treatments known as monoclonal antibodies, which are manufactured proteins that act like antibodies in the immune system in order to fight viruses.
“It is designed to block viral attachment and entry into human cells, thus neutralizing the virus, potentially preventing and treating COVID-19,” the company said on its website.
This treatment is similar to the Regeneron Pharmaceuticals antibody cocktail that Trump received after he contracted COVID-19, a treatment that the president called a “cure.”
While some health experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, believe that a coronavirus vaccine will become available in the next few months, world leaders are increasingly turning to the production of antibody drugs to help treat the symptoms of those who fall ill.
Under the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed program, the government has also signed deals with AstraZeneca and Regeneron for their antibody therapies.
If its drug is approved for emergency use by the FDA, Eli Lilly said, it will have 100,000 vials ready to ship within days.
“The U.S. is experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases and associated hospitalizations,” Ricks said. “We believe bamlanivimab could be an important therapeutic option that can bring value to the overall health care system, as it has shown a potential benefit in clinical outcomes with a reduction in viral load and rates of symptoms and hospitalizations.”
The federal government has said that any patient who receives the new Eli Lilly drug would not be charged for out-of-pocket costs, but health care facilities could charge for its administration.
