Eli Lilly and Amgen Partner for COVID-19 Therapy Manufacturing Capacity

Eli Lilly and Company and Amgen announced on Sept. 17, 2020 that they are entering into a global antibody manufacturing collaboration to expand Eli Lilly’s supply capacity for potential COVID-19 therapies.

Under the terms of the partnership, the companies will be able to scale up production and serve more patients if Eli Lilly’s potential COVID-19 antibody therapies are deemed effective in clinical trials and gain regulatory approval, an Eli Lilly press release 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," said Daniel Skovronsky, MD, PhD, Eli Lilly's chief scientific officer and president of Lilly Research Laboratories, in the press release. "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."

"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,” added Esteban Santos, executive vice-president of operations at Amgen, in the press release. “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."

Source: Eli Lilly​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​