Regeneron Reports Breakthrough in the Treatment of COVID-19

A significant breakthrough in the battle against COVID-19 was announced this week by BCW member Regeneron Pharmaceuticals which said a new study found its monoclonal antibody cocktail reduces the risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19 in high-risk patients. Researchers at the Tarrytown-based company studied more than 4,000 recently diagnosed patients and found the two-antibody combo drug, called REGEN-COV, cut the risk of hospitalization or death by 70%, as well as reduced the median recovery time from 14 days to 10.

“This is a landmark moment in the fight against COVID-19 as this large well-controlled trial provides conclusive results demonstrating that REGEN-COV can dramatically reduce the risk of hospitalization and death in the outpatient setting,” said Suraj Saggar, D.O., trial investigator and Chief of Infectious Disease at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, NJ. “With so many people still getting infected, as well as recent data showing that REGEN-COV addresses emerging variants, these data underscore the need to rapidly adopt REGEN-COV as standard-of-care to offer high-risk patients their best chance to reduce serious consequences like hospitalization or death.”

“With approximately 60,000 newly diagnosed individuals in the U.S. every day and 40,000 still in the hospital because of COVID-19, we are committed to working with the government, healthcare providers and others to support rapid and widespread adoption of REGEN-COV in appropriate patients,” said George D. Yancopoulos, M.D., Ph.D., President and Chief Scientific Officer at Regeneron. “We will discuss the new data with regulatory authorities and request that the 1,200 mg dose be rapidly added to the U.S. Emergency Use Authorization, in order for the anticipated REGEN-COV supply to be available to treat even more patients. These Phase 3 data will also form the basis of a full Biologics License Application,” he added.

Regeneron is collaborating with Roche to increase global supply of REGEN-COV. Regeneron is responsible for development and distribution of the treatment in the U.S., and Roche is primarily responsible for development and distribution outside the U.S.