Lilly and Amgen to collaborate for manufacturing COVID-19 antibody therapies

Eli Lilly and Amgen announced a global antibody manufacturing collaboration to significantly increase the supply capacity available for Lilly’s potential COVID-19 therapies. Lilly is currently studying several potential neutralising antibodies for the prevention and/or treatment of COVID-19 as either monotherapy or in combination. Through this collaboration, the two companies will have the ability to quickly scale up production should one or more of Lilly’s antibody therapies prove successful in clinical testing and receive regulatory approval.

“Based on our initial clinical studies, we believe that virus neutralising antibodies, including LY-CoV-555, could play an important role in the fight against COVID-19. Increasing the manufacturing capacity for our neutralising 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,” said Daniel Skovronsky, Lilly’s Chief Scientific Officer and President of Lilly Research Laboratories.

“We are impressed with Lilly’s data, in particular the reduction in hospitalisations, and are enthusiastic about the potential for these neutralising antibodies as a therapeutic for COVID-19,” said David M Reese, Executive VP of Research and Development at Amgen.