Federal officials said yesterday that shipments of Eli Lilly’s bebtelovimab — one of the final two remaining mAb treatments for Covid-19 — would halt later this month, setting up a commercial market where the government no longer pays for the doses and hospitals and other clinics will have to purchase supplies.
According to ASPR, the arm of HHS that ships Covid-19 drugs, states have ordered 627,536 bebtelovimab courses, and 383,515 courses have been administered as of July 31. The US has paid Lilly a total of about $1.27 billion for all of the courses so far, amounting to about $2,100 per course to start and then receiving a discounted $1,833 ASP for the later part of the deal. According to the Wall Street Journal, Lilly’s list price for bebtelovimab is $2,100 per dose.
Dan Skovronsky“I don’t anticipate that this will in any way stimulate usage of the product,” Dan Skovronsky, Lilly’s chief scientific and medical officer, told WSJ in an interview. “It’s more just about, how do we keep it available despite the U.S. government not being able to purchase it anymore. That’s why we’re switching to a different model here.”
On Friday, the FDA updated the bebtelovimab Letter of Authorization to remove the requirement that distribution will be controlled by the US government.
Lilly said it will make bebtelovimab commercially available for purchase by US states/territories, hospitals and a broad set of other providers like infusion centers, long-term care facilities, and clinics through AmerisourceBergen Specialty Distribution, the sole distributor beginning the week of Aug. 15.
