Eli Lilly and Co. and Amgen have entered a global antibody manufacturing collaboration to significantly increase the supply capacity available for Lilly’s potential COVID-19 therapies. Lilly is studying several potential neutralizing antibodies for the prevention and/or treatment of COVID-19 as either monotherapy or in combination. 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 neutralizing antibodies, including LY-CoV-555, could play an important role in the fight against COVID-19,” said Daniel Skovronsky, M.D., Ph.D., Lilly’s chief scientific officer and president of Lilly Research Laboratories. “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 impressed with Lilly’s data, in particular the reduction in hospitalizations, and are enthusiastic about the potential for these neutralizing antibodies as a therapeutic for COVID-19,” said David M. Reese, M.D., executive vice president of research and development at Amgen. Esteban Santos, executive vice president of Operations at Amgen, added “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.”