Lilly announces global donations of COVID treatments
INDIANAPOLIS (Inside INdiana Business) — Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE: LLY) says it will donate an unspecified amount of its COVID-19 therapies to low and lower-middle-income countries most heavily affected by the pandemic. The company says it will donate both baricitinib as well as its cocktail prescription of bamlanivimab and etesevimab, which provides options to treat COVID-19 patients at different stages of the disease.
The announcement comes as the company also says it will provide 400,000 doses of baricitinib to the Indian government for COVID-19 patients who are hospitalized.
The World Health Organization reported Tuesday that India recorded nearly 360,000 new cases of the disease over the past 24 hours
Lilly Chairman and Chief Executive Officer David Ricks says even as the world makes progress on vaccine rollouts, it remains vital for treatments to be made available.
“Bamlanivimab with etesevimab together reduces the risk of hospitalizations and death for high-risk patients in the outpatient setting, while recent data show baricitinib in addition to current standard of care reduces death in hospitalized patients,” said Ricks.
Lilly says it will work with global humanitarian nonprofit Direct Relief to allocate the treatments. The initiative will begin immediately.
The company says the allocation will be based on the disease burden and hospitalization rates in each country.