THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Amgen Inc. and Eli Lilly and Co. on Thursday announced a global antibody manufacturing collaboration that would increase supply capacity available for Lilly’s potential COVID-19 therapies, should any of them prove successful in clinical testing and receive regulatory approval.
Lilly said that it is studying several potential neutralizing antibodies for the prevention and/or treatment of COVID-19 as either monotherapy or in combination.
The collaboration with Amgen, which has a manufacturing plant in West Greenwich, would allow the companies to ramp up production of a successful candidate more quickly.
“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 Dr. Daniel Skovronsky, Eli 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.”
