(Reuters) -U.S. health officials on Friday paused the distribution of Eli Lilly’s COVID-19 antibody cocktail therapy as it failed to show effectiveness against the coronavirus variants first seen in Brazil and South Africa.
The decision by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is based on laboratory analyses that showed Lilly’s dual antibody therapy – bamlanivimab and etesevimab – was not active against either variants.
The officials also paused the distribution of etesevimab alone to pair with existing supply of bamlanivimab.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in April revoked the emergency use authorization granted to use Lilly’s bamlanivimab alone and required it to be used along with etesevimab, to achieve greater efficacy against emerging virus variants.
The HHS also said Regeneron’s antibody therapy, REGEN-COV, and GlaxoSmithKline Plc and partner Vir Biotechnology’s sotrovimab are likely to be effective against the variants.
Eli Lilly did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
(Reporting by Manojna Maddipatla in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Ramakrishnan M.)
