Regeneron Partners With Roche To Develop COVID-19 Antibody Cocktail

Roche is partnering with Regeneron to develop an antibody cocktail for COVID-19. On Wednesday, the two companies issued a joint statement announcing that they are joining forces to develop, manufacture, and distribute Regeneron’s investigational antiviral antibody combination to help fight the pandemic.

REGN-COV2, Regeneron’s two-antibody combination, is already in late-stage clinical trials. Regeneron expects data from the trials to be available in September. If the results are positive, Regeneron will handle the U.S. sales of the antibody cocktail while Roche will take care of its distribution around the globe. The partnership will boost the supply of REGN-COV2 to at least three and a half times its current capacity, with the potential for even further expansion.

“This major collaboration with Roche provides important scale and global expertise to bring REGN-COV2 to many more patients in the United States and around the globe,” said Regeneron Chief Executive Leonard Schleifer.

Under the collaboration, Regeneron and Roche will fund and manage the ongoing late-stage Phase 3 prevention and earlier-stage Phase 1 healthy volunteer safety studies, as well as other studies that will evaluate the ability of REGN-COV2 to treat and prevent COVID-19.

The COVID-19 antibody cocktail combines one antibody made by Regeneron and another antibody isolated from recovered COVID-19 patients. This combination is intended to bind to the spike protein used by the new coronavirus to penetrate human cells, limiting its ability to escape.

The United States has already inked a $450-million deal to procure the cocktail, under the terms that Regeneron will sell the country around 70,000 to 300,000 potential treatment doses or 420,000 to 1.3 million prevention doses of REGN-COV2. The deal came after the U.S. Justice Department wrote a letter in July consenting drug companies, including Roche, to share information about their in-trial antibody treatments so the country can boost their manufacturing capacities.

Roche is one of the largest antibody producers in the world and runs facilities in San Francisco, USA. The company has decided to collaborate with Regeneron after the COVID-19 trial of its own drug, Actemra, failed to meet its Phase III goals in COVID-19 patients in July.