The Department of Defense has turned its Operation Warp Speed coronavirus effort to therapeutics, announcing a $375 million purchase agreement Wednesday to buy Eli Lilly’s as-yet unproven antibody treatment.
The joint announcement with the Department of Health and Human Services, its Operation Warp Speed partner, turns the multibillion-dollar effort launched by President Trump at the White House in May toward antibody treatments.
“The Trump Administration’s commitment to supporting potentially lifesaving therapeutics will help deliver these products to American patients without a day’s delay,” HHS Secretary Alex Azar said in a statement.
Operation Warp Speed has already bankrolled six vaccine efforts, each vying for emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration in record time to meet the president’s goal of 300 million vaccines by Jan. 1, 2021.
An initial purchase of 300,000 doses of the Lilly therapeutic, called bamlanivimab, will take place over the next two months. The federal government has an option to purchase up to 650,000 additional doses through June 2021 for an additional price tag of $812.5 million.
The federal government would then distribute the doses to states that could then offer them to people at no cost.
The purchase is dependent on the drug’s FDA approval. Bamlanivimab is currently in phase 3 trials.
The therapeutic antibodies were developed from one of the first patients recovered from the coronavirus.
Once injected, the antibodies bond with the virus cells, reducing their ability to attack new cells.
Dr. Michael Hepburn, Operation Warp Speed’s head of vaccine development, said during a Heritage Foundation virtual discussion Tuesday that two of the suspended vaccine efforts, by AstraZeneca and Janssen, are back on track after they were paused to assess adverse reactions in some trial participants.
“The safety pause has now been withdrawn,” he said. “But it also emphasizes very much the prioritization that we have safe and effective vaccines, that we are following the highest ethical standards to ensure that these vaccines are safe, and that those clinical trials are conducted to the highest regulatory and ethical standards as well.”
