There’s a new coronavirus treatment option that will go a long way to prevent hospitals from getting swarmed with severe patients this winter. On Saturday night, Regeneron‘s COVID-19 treatment candidate, REGEN-COV2, earned emergency use authorization from the FDA to treat recently diagnosed patients at high risk of becoming severely affected.
The first COVID-19 antibody cocktail
On Nov. 9, the FDA authorized bamlanivimab, an antibody treatment from Eli Lilly for the same group of patients. Lilly’s also working on a cocktail of its own that combines bamlanivimab and LY-CoV016. Both seek out and stick to spike proteins on the surface of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19.
Regeneron committed to a combined antibody approach early and it looks like a smart move. Clinical trial participants randomized to receive treatment with REGEN-COV2 were 57% less likely to report a COVID-19 related medical visit than patients given a placebo. Among COVID-19 patients with one or more risk factors that makes them likely to develop severe symptoms, treatment with REGEN-COV2 led to an even more impressive 72% risk reduction.
Regeneron expects to have doses for around 80,000 patients ready by the end of November. With help in the manufacturing and distribution department from Roche (OTC:RHHBY), one of the world’s largest drugmakers, Regeneron thinks doses for around 300,000 patients will be ready by the end of January 2021.
