ABCL - Lilly picks AmerisourceBergen for U.S. commercial rollout of COVID-19 antibody therapy

• Eli Lilly ( NYSE: LLY ) announced that the FDA had updated the authorization granted for its COVID-19 antibody therapy bebtelovimab allowing its commercial availability from next week through the drug distributor AmerisourceBergen ( ABC ).
• Per the previous authorization, the U.S. government controlled the domestic distribution of bebtelovimab.
• According to the company, with the updated clearance, bebtelovimab will be commercially available for states/territories, hospitals, and other healthcare providers from Aug. 15.
• Lilly ( LLY ) has selected AmerisourceBergen Specialty Distribution as the sole distributor for the rollout.
• A monoclonal antibody, bebtelovimab, was discovered by AbCellera Biologics ( ABCL ), which later licensed it to Lilly ( LLY ) for further studies.
• Recently, the U.S. agreed to procure extra 150K doses of bebtelovimab for approximately $275M under a modified purchase agreement with the company.

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