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The Biden administration on Friday announced an agreement to purchase 100,000 doses of Eli Lilly’s monoclonal antibody cocktail, recently cleared by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The move will increase the available supply of one of the few proven treatments for people with COVID-19. Antibody-based drugs are allowed in patients who are at high risk of becoming seriously ill but who have not yet been hospitalized.
Under the deal, the federal government will pay $ 210 million for the initial purchase of up to 100,000 courses of treatment of the drug, which is a combination of the drug bamlanivimab, which was cleared last November for patients at high risk COVID-19, with a second drug known as etesevimab.
The suit has received emergency use authorization earlier this month, after data showed it reduced the risk of hospitalization and death by 70%.
The deal includes the flexibility to buy up to a total of 1.2 million doses through November, but that will likely depend on how the pandemic progresses in the coming months.
The government has already pledged to purchase a total of 1,450,000 doses of bamlanivimab alone, which includes over a million doses that have been delivered and an agreement to distribute 450,000 additional doses by the end of the month. Of March.
The government has said it will provide neutralizing antibodies at no cost to patients, although healthcare facilities may charge a fee for administering the product.
To receive therapeutic antibody treatment, patients should contact their health care providers.
Another antibody treatment made by Regeneron is also cleared by the FDA. Regeneron supplies the federal government with up to 1.5 million doses.
But despite their effectiveness and federal efforts to encourage use, antibody therapy has seen lackluster demand.
The supply was limited at first, and getting the drug to the patients is a complex undertaking. Since these are drugs for infusion, antibodies should be administered in the appropriate setting. The window for administering drugs is small and patients need a quick diagnosis.
Getting patients to an infusion center or hospital is difficult, especially as the out-of-control pandemic puts considerable strain on hospitals and health workers. Experts have called for a better system to make sure drugs can reach patients who need them most.
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