Lilly’s COVID treatment sparks little demand
For a highly touted drug meant to keep throngs of people out of hospitals during a pandemic, Eli Lilly and Co.’s wonder treatment bamlanivimab sure has been slow to catch on.
For a highly touted drug meant to keep throngs of people out of hospitals during a pandemic, Eli Lilly and Co.’s wonder treatment bamlanivimab sure has been slow to catch on.
Red tape, staff shortages, testing delays and strong skepticism are keeping many patients and doctors from the drugs made by Eli Lilly and Co. and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.
Lilly stock climbed Tuesday after the drugmaker laid out a better-than-expected revenue forecast and plans to buy a young company developing a potential Parkinson’s disease treatment.
Doctors are reporting that a two-drug treatment involving a medication from Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. is especially helpful for COVID-19 patients who need extra oxygen.
The medication will be provided by the U.S. government, which paid Indianapolis-based Lilly $375 million for an initial two-month supply of 300,000 doses as part of the Operation Warp Speed program.
Lilly said it will enroll up to 500,000 people in its latest study, with at least 5,000 people expected to receive bamlanivimab therapy. The drugmaker is partnering with health insurer UnitedHealth Group to see if the drug will help high-risk people.
CVS has developed a program to provide the treatments in their homes, but it won’t be available—at least initially—in Indianapolis.
In a separate development, the FDA on Thursday gave emergency authorization to use of another anti-inflammatory drug sold by Eli Lilly, baricitinib, to be used with remdesivir.
The Indianapolis drugmaker said Thursday evening it was awarded an emergency use authorization for its drug baricitinib to be used in combination with Gilead Sciences’ antiviral drug remdesivir in severely ill, hospitalized patients with COVID-19.
Because of the initial limited supply, the number of doses each state receives will be determined by the number of confirmed cases and hospitalizations in a given week, federal officials said.
The initial scarcity of the drug and the logistical complexities of administering it could mute its immediate impact on the pandemic and raise questions about whether it is being distributed to people in the greatest need.
The Food and Drug Administration on Monday cleared the experimental drug from Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. for people 12 and older with mild or moderate COVID-19 not requiring hospitalization. It’s a one-time treatment given through an IV.
Eli Lilly and Co. said Wednesday that the U.S. government will accept 300,000 vials of the drug, called bamlanivimab, if the Food and Drug Administration grants emergency authorization for its use.
Although federal officials pulled the plug on a trial testing a Lilly antibody drug for people hospitalized with COVID-19, other studies for the therapy are continuing on populations that could become big markets.
Eli Lilly and Co. on Thursday announced that it has agreed to acquire Disarm Therapeutics, a private biotechnology company that is developing therapies that could be used to treat multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, Alzheimer’s disease and ALS.
Lilly said it is reviewing safety data that caused federal researchers to pause a trial of the company’s COVID-19 antibody treatment in hospitalized patients. Other trials using lower doses of the drug outside the hospital will continue.
Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. said it made the decision on recommendation of the Data and Safety Monitoring Board “out of an abundance of caution.”
Experimental antibody drugs like the one President Trump was given and the one Eli Lilly is developing are among the most promising therapies being tested for treating and preventing coronavirus infections. Here’s how they work.
Shares of Lilly jumped 3.7%, or $5.41, to $149.54 in afternoon trading following the company’s morning announcement that it has asked the U.S. government to allow emergency use of the therapy to treat the disease.
Eli Lilly and Co. says it has asked the U.S. government to allow emergency use of an experimental antibody therapy based on positive early results from a study.