Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:REGN) stocks traveled higher Monday, after it disclosed that its COVID-19 antibody cocktail received emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The FDA designation was granted Saturday. The company, based in Tarrytown, New York, says the authorization is meant to treat patients who are not hospitalized but are at high risk of developing the disease. The cocktail was one of three pharmaceutical treatments given to President Trump for treatment of COVID-19 in October. This is the second antibody drug cleared this month for emergency authorization to use in a similar set of COVID-19 patients after Eli Lilly's (NYSE:LLY) bamlanivimab previously had won approval.
Previous drugs cleared for COVID-19 use, such as Gilead's remdesivir, were authorized for hospitalized patients. Lilly's antibody drug was derived from antibodies isolated from the blood of a patient who recovered from COVID-19, while Regeneron's drug combines an antibody from a recovered patient and one generated by mice with genetically modified immune systems.
Said CEO Leonard Schleifer, "This FDA Emergency Use Authorization is an important step in the fight against COVID-19, as high-risk patients in the United States will have access to a promising therapy early in the course of their infection.
"The science and technology investments Regeneron has made over three decades positioned us to move rapidly to invent, study and maximize production of REGEN-COV2.
REGN gained $4.28 to $523.02.
