Regeneron (NASDAQ:REGN) said it aims to have doses of a potential drug for COVID-19 ready to start human clinical trials by early summer.
The biotech giant's approach involves creating antibodies to the virus that could be used to treat the disease and to prevent it, Regeneron said in a statement Tuesday.
The company, based in Eastview, New York, had previously said it aimed to have hundreds of thousands of doses ready for human testing in late summer, so the new goal is a significant acceleration. Regeneron said it plans to start large-scale manufacturing by the middle of next month and still plans to ramp up to hundreds of thousands of preventive doses a month by the end of summer.
Said CEO George Yancopoulos, "There are always so many moving parts, but … we’re hitting our best numbers, our best timelines, and things are going really well."
Regeneron is developing the therapy the same way it created a drug for Ebola, which is now under review by the FDA, and four other drugs already on the market: It uses mice genetically engineered to have human-like immune systems. The mice are exposed to a target protein and generate human antibodies in response.
Those antibodies are now used in medicines approved to treat such maladies as asthma, high cholesterol, rheumatoid arthritis and cancer.
For COVID-19, the mice were exposed to part of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Regeneron said its scientists have now isolated hundreds of antibodies that neutralize the virus, and they’re sorting through them — as well as antibodies isolated from people who have recovered from COVID-19 — to find the best two with which to create a cocktail treatment.
Shares in REGN sprang to life $53.17, or 12.1%, to $494.00
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