Lilly, Amgen collaborate to boost supply of potential COVID-19 therapies

Eli Lilly and Company has entered into a global antibody manufacturing collaboration with Amgen to considerably boost the supply capacity for its potential COVID-19 therapies.

Currently, Lilly is studying various potential neutralizing antibodies for the prevention and/or treatment of the novel coronavirus as monotherapy or in combination.

Through the collaboration, the two US pharma companies can quickly increase production and cater to many more patients across the world if one or more of antibody therapies of Lilly are successful in clinical testing and secure regulatory approval.

Daniel Skovronsky – Lilly chief scientific officer and president of Lilly Research Laboratories said: “Based on our initial clinical studies, we believe that virus neutralizing antibodies, including LY-CoV-555, could play an important role in the fight against COVID-19.

“Increasing the manufacturing capacity for our neutralizing antibodies through this collaboration with Amgen is a crucial next step, and together we hope to be able to produce many millions of doses even next year.”

Lilly, Amgen collaborate to boost supply of potential COVID-19 therapies. Photo courtesy of Momoneymoproblemz/Wikipedia.org.

In early June, Lilly started a phase 1 clinical trial of its investigational antibody LY-CoV555 for the treatment of COVID-19. LY-CoV555 is the first antibody candidate to resulted from Lilly’s collaboration with AbCellera Biologics, which was announced in March 2020, with an objective to create antibody therapies for the prevention and also treatment of the novel coronavirus.

Esteban Santos – Amgen executive vice president of Operations said: “We are proud to partner with Lilly and leverage our deep technical expertise in antibody development and, in particular, our strong capabilities in the scale up and manufacturing of complex biologics. This is yet another example of the ways our industry is closely collaborating to combat this devastating disease and help patients around the world access new therapies.”