The Vancouver-based biotech said its partnership with U.S. pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly has yielded a second antibody, LY-CoV1404, that has entered ongoing clinical trials. The company said preclinical, pre-peer-review data shows it “neutralizes all currently known variants of concern” including those first identified in the U.K., South Africa, Brazil, California and New York. (The Logic)

Talking point: AbCellera’s first antibody therapy, bamlanivimab, gives recipients a temporary boost to their immune responses. Both the FDA and Health Canada have authorized its use, and in the U.S., it’s been used to treat high-risk COVID patients without severe symptoms. In Canada, however, some 17,000 doses for which the federal government paid US$21.3 million have been mostly sitting in storage. After some variants proved resistant to the treatment, Health Canada issued an alert. The U.S. has responded to the variants by starting to administer bamlanivimab in combination with a second antibody, an approach Health Canada has not yet approved. After identifying bamlanivimab, AbCellera continued to search for additional antibodies to fight new variants, CEO Carl Hansen said in a statement. The company is “encouraged by the potential of [the antibody] to provide a long-term complement to vaccines in the likely event that COVID-19 becomes endemic,” he said.