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The U.S. struck a $720 million deal with Eli Lilly & Co. for supplies of an experimental Covid drug that appears to fight the omicron variant that’s sweeping the country. Under the agreement, Lilly will provide the Department of Health and Human Services with 600,000 doses of bebtelovimab, a monoclonal antibody under U.S. regulatory review for treatment of mild-to-moderate Covid in certain high-risk patients. (Griffin, 2/10)

Addressing diminished treatment options in the omicron wave, the Biden administration has purchased enough of a yet-to-be approved antibody drug to treat 600,000 COVID-19 patients, officials said Thursday. The new monoclonal antibody from pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly will be shipped out to states free of charge if the Food and Drug Administration approves the company’s request for emergency use authorization, said Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. “We are going to try to be there to meet the demand,” he added. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 2/10)

A pair of conflicting reports released this week raised questions about whether the Covid-19 monoclonal antibody sotrovimab — the one such treatment that has continued to work against the Omicron variant — maintains its power against a sister form of the virus, BA.2.A study posted to a preprint server Wednesday (meaning it has not been peer-reviewed) indicated that sotrovimab failed to neutralize BA.2 in lab experiments. “This new finding shows that no presently approved or authorized monoclonal antibody therapy could adequately cover” BA.2, the researchers wrote. (Joseph, 2/10)

Every six months, Ashley Fisher gets an infusion of medication that wipes out her B-cells, the immune system’s equivalent to a weapons producer. In a typical immune system, B-cells build antibodies that fight off viruses. For Fisher, who has multiple sclerosis, B-cells play a key role in slowly degrading her brain and spinal cord. Killing some of them off has stopped the damage, and she's lived symptom-free for four years. (Woodruff, 2/11)

When Minnesota and Utah health officials started using race as a factor to determine who would get scarce covid-19 treatments, they were hailed for their efforts to bridge the pandemic’s deadly racial divide. Now those officials are center stage of the nation’s latest battle over race, identity and equity, after they rolled back their policies under pressure from conservatives and a group led by Stephen Miller, a top adviser to former president Donald Trump. (Rizzo, 2/10)