COVID-19 News: Eli Lilly Drug Receives FDA Emergency Authorization; Drug Pricing Language in COVID-19 Bill

February 15, 2021

Two recent developments related to COVID-19 are a new drug approval and a relief bill containing a drug pricing proposal. A combination therapy of two antibodies from Eli Lilly has been shown to be effective in reducing hospitalization and death rates from COVID-19. These two drugs (bamlanivimab and etesevimab) have received emergency authorization approval from the FDA. Eli Lilly will collaborate with Amgen to manufacture as many as 1 million doses of etesevimab by June 2021 to be used in conjunction with bamlanivimab. In a recent COVID-19 relief bill, House Democrats have added language related to drug pricing.

“Data from a late-stage clinical trial showed the two antibodies, bamlanivimab and etesevimab, helped cut the risk of hospitalization and death in Covid-19 patients by 70%.” Learn more here.

(Source: Ed Silverman, STAT News, 2/10/21)

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