U.S.-Swiss Pact to Triple Supply of Emerging Covid-19 Treatment
Tarrytown, New York-based Regeneron designed the drug, called REGN-COV2, after screening thousands of antibody candidates.
(Bloomberg) -- Roche Holding AG has agreed to help develop and market an experimental Covid-19 treatment from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., the latest collaboration aimed at scaling up production of promising measures against the pandemic.
The pact is expected to more than triple the supply of the therapy, with Regeneron handling sales in the U.S. and Roche assuming responsibility for distribution elsewhere in the world. Regeneron’s antiviral candidate is being studied in two phase 2/3 clinical trials for treating Covid-19 along with a phase 3 trial for the prevention of the disease in people living with others who are already infected, the companies said in a statement.
The drug is one of several monoclonal antibody therapies being tested by pharma companies against the coronavirus. Such treatments aim to mimic the body’s natural immune-system response by blocking the so-called spike protein the virus uses to invade human cells.
Tarrytown, New York-based Regeneron designed the drug, called REGN-COV2, after screening thousands of antibody candidates. The drug has two antibodies that are designed to neutralize the coronavirus. Roche is one of the world’s biggest makers of Covid-19 diagnostics and is testing some of its own medicines in the pandemic, though one trial has failed.
“We see the cocktail as one of the stronger approaches, based on non-human primate data and Regeneron’s history in Ebola,” Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Sam Fazeli and Cinney Zhang said in a note.
Roche shares were little changed early Wednesday in Zurich.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
