Eli Lilly To Kickstart Pragmatic Covid-19 Study In Mexico

Eli Lilly & Co. announced plans to launch a pragmatic study of its investigational antibody treatment, bamlanivimab, in high-risk patients with COVID-19.

As part of the study, Lilly (LLY) will work in collaboration with major local institutions in the state of New Mexico to collate data on the effectiveness and safety of bamlanivimab in a real-world environment, that includes diverse population groups from both rural and urban areas.

Bamlanivimab is a potent, neutralizing IgG1 monoclonal antibody (mAb) directed against the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2. It is designed to block viral attachment and entry into human cells, thus neutralizing the virus, potentially preventing and treating COVID-19. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently granted bamlanivimab emergency use authorization (EUA) for the treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 patients who are at high risk of progressing to a severe state of the illness and hospitalization.

“It is important to continue building on the evidence base for bamlanivimab through ongoing studies, including those in a real-world setting,” said Lilly’s chief scientific officer, Daniel Skovronsky. “In addition to gathering treatment and safety data, Lilly will use this study to explore the delivery of bamlanivimab in a variety of innovative infusion settings, which could help inform best practices and ultimately replication by institutions around the country.”

The US drugmaker is planning to launch the study in the coming weeks to evaluate the effectiveness of bamlanivimab in bringing down the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in a high-risk population.

As part of the study, Lilly said that it will employ its mobile research units used in other studies. These units include a custom retrofitted recreational vehicle (RV) for mobile labs and clinical trial material preparation and a support vehicle to deliver clinical trial supplies needed to set up an on-site infusion clinic for patients who may otherwise not be able to participate in a clinical study due to lack of access.

Lilly targets manufacturing of up to 1 million doses of bamlanivimab 700 mg by the end of 2020 for use around the world. The supply of Lilly’s antibody therapy is expected to increase substantially beginning in Q1 2021, as additional manufacturing resources come online throughout the year via its five production sites worldwide, the drugmaker recently said.

Shares of LLY have advanced 18% over the past month, taking the year-to-date rally to 30% so far this year. Meanwhile, Wall Street analysts have a cautiously optimistic Moderate Buy consensus on the stock. That’s with an average analyst price target of $173.81, indicating 3.2% upside potential lies ahead over the coming year.

Commenting on LLY’s recent share move, Mizuho analyst Vamil Divan said that although the stock looked interesting for brief periods of time over the past few weeks, it is approaching 52-week highs, and added that the premium multiple it is trading at keeps him at Hold.

Divan lifted LLY’s price target to $164 from $156, noting that “shares may move higher in anticipation of top-line donanemab data in early 2021.” However, fundamentally the analyst sees limited room for significant upside. (See Eli Lilly’s stock analysis on TipRanks).