Eli Lilly’s ‘Antibody Therapy’ showed great results after series of clinical trials as its sales went on an upward spree caused by the demand for the Bamlanivimab. “We had a strong quarter (Q4) and part of that was driven by the new antibody for Covid-19, ‘Bamlanivimab’.”, said Eli Lilly’s CEO, David Ricks in a recent CNBC interview.
Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) is a drug manufacturing business that currently has a $194.3 billion market cap. The company was able to deliver a decent 55.09% return for the past 3 months and settled at $203.14 per share at the closing of February 1st, 2021. November last year, FDA, through its emergency-use-provision, approved the company’s antibody therapy for people aged 65 and above to be widely disseminated for public use. Due to the strong demand, the supply of Bamlanivimab was quickly consumed by different healthcare facilities and therefore benefitted Eli Lilly’s earnings and sales.
According to Ricks, the majority of the purchases came from government entities for their own constituents, and for the record, the U.S. government purchased 1.5 million doses of the drug. He also clarified that their sole purpose was not to raise earnings but to help the world in our battle against the pandemic. “Most of those are government purchases, and we got into this not to drive Q4 earnings but to make a difference in the pandemic. We’re even more pleased with the number of doctors and patients finding success with the antibody therapy,”.
It can be noted that in the past week, Eli Lilly disclosed the results of Bamlanivimab, aside from its ability to cure Covid, it can also help to prevent people from acquiring the virus. Ricks said that the drug can slow down the virus transmission up to 80%, and a recent study concludes that Bamlanivimab helped reduce 70% of Covid-19 hospitalization and amazingly contributed to the reduction of related deaths.
As of today, Eli Lilly’s CEO said that people can now have greater opportunities on acquiring the antibody treatment in a much easier fashion. Talking about the production of their drug, Ricks said, “It’s improving. The government came out and said they estimated about 20% of what they shipped had been used. We’ve probably doubled that number or a little bit better since we estimate well over a hundred thousand people have benefitted. And that’s important because we can make the drug but if it doesn’t get in people’s arms, it’s not going to help”.
He emphasized in the conclusion that hospitals and health care regions need to do things differently. In order to put the antibody to work, Ricks said that we have to find ‘at-risk’ people early right after their diagnosis. “Around 2% of the people in the ‘at-risk’ group died without the antibody and 0% with the antibody.”.
