Lilly to Supply the EU and EEA with up to 220,000 Doses of AbCellera-Discovered Bamlanivimab Together with Etesevimab for the Treatment of Confirmed COVID-19

AbCellera (Nasdaq: ABCL) today announced the European Commission (EC) and Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly) have entered into a Joint Procurement Agreement to supply up to 220,000 doses of bamlanivimab together with etesevimab to treat confirmed COVID-19 in patients aged 12 years and older that do not require supplemental oxygen for COVID-19 and who are at increased risk of progressing to severe COVID-19. The agreement helps to provide access to treatments by enabling participating countries in the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) to purchase the products directly from Lilly following national approval for emergency use or marketing authorization at the EU level.

“It is important that we use every tool available to combat COVID-19. With the rise of the highly contagious Delta variant, it is critical that patients who need it have access to antibody therapies that can neutralize the virus and prevent the progression to severe illness,” said Carl Hansen, Ph.D., CEO and President of AbCellera.

In the U.S., bamlanivimab alone and together with etesevimab have been used to treat more than 535,000 patients, potentially keeping more than 25,000 patients out of the hospital and saving more than 10,000 lives. The Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for bamlanivimab together with etesevimab in the U.S. was recently expanded to include post-exposure prophylaxis to prevent COVID-19.

Pseudovirus and authentic virus studies demonstrate that bamlanivimab and etesevimab together retain neutralization activity against variants currently in circulation in many countries, including Delta and Alpha. Based on the high transmissibility of the Delta variant, currently over 95 percent of new COVID-19 infections in the EU/EEA have been identified as being caused by the Delta variant.

About AbCellera’s Response to COVID-19

AbCellera initially mobilized its pandemic response platform against COVID-19 in March of 2020, resulting in the discovery of bamlanivimab, the first monoclonal antibody therapy for COVID-19 to reach human testing and to be authorized for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Bamlanivimab alone and together with other antibodies has treated hundreds of thousands of patients, preventing COVID-19-related hospitalizations and death.