The U.S. government has halted shipments of the coronavirus antibody treatment bamlanivimab, which was developed by Eli Lilly. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the decision was made after officials noticed a "sustained increase in SARS-CoV-2 viral variants in the United States that are resistant to bamlanivimab administered alone."
The decision comes after the Food and Drug Administration updated its guidance on the drug last week.
"There is a potential risk of treatment failure due to the development of viral SARS-CoV-2 variants that are resistant to bamlanivimab. Prescribing healthcare providers should consider the prevalence of bamlanivimab resistance variants in their area, where data are available when considering treatment options," the FDA wrote.
While healthcare providers won't be receiving bamlanivimab by itself, the treatment will still be available when paired with the drug etesevimab. Eli Lilly said they will continue to send etesevimab to facilities that have doses of bamlanivimab on hand.
"The U.S. government has enabled direct ordering of bamlanivimab and etesevimab together as well as etesevimab alone, to pair with bamlanivimab that sites of care have on hand," the pharmaceutical company said in the statement. "We believe that sites with access to bamlanivimab and etesevimab for administration together should use that therapy over bamlanivimab alone. We remain committed to ensuring patients who need access to neutralizing antibody therapy can get it."
The government has purchased nearly 800,000 doses of bamlanivimab and distributed over 660,000 doses as of March 2.
Another antibody treatment developed by Regeneron appears to have better results against the coronavirus variants and is still available.
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