On Jan. 27, 2021, Eli Lilly, Vir Biotechnology and GlaxoSmithKline announced a collaboration to evaluate a combination of two COVID-19 therapies in low-risk patients with mild to moderate COVID-19. Lilly expanded its ongoing BLAZE-4 trial to evaluate the administration of bamlanivimab (LY-CoV555) 700mg with VIR-7831 500mg, two neutralizing antibodies that bind to different epitopes of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.

This unique collaboration marked the first time that monoclonal antibodies from separate companies were brought together to explore potential outcomes.