Regeneron Antibodies in the News
We witnessed, in a very public way last week, the evaluation and treatment of a famous patient with Covid-19. I previously mentioned Monoclonal Antibodies on August 26th in these blog posts. But it seemed like a good time to review REGN-COV2, one of the two monoclonal antibody drugs that are early in their clinical trials in the US. It was administered to President Trump early in his Covid-19 infection with a compassionate approval. Read Below
Early Results:
REGN-COV2 is a mixture of two manufactured monoclonal antibodies to different binding sites on the SARS-CoV-2 virus spikes. The Regeneron company currently has 3 clinical trials listed on governmenttrials.com: one in ambulatory patients, one in hospitalized patients, and one in individuals exposed to a Covid-19 patient. There is limited data from these trials which only began several months ago. All of the following information was presented at an investor meeting on Sept 29th for the first 275 patients enrolled in the ambulatory patient trial (Goal = 2000 volunteers).
Trial participants all had positive virus tests and received a low dose, a high dose. or a placebo infusion Patients' antibodies were also measured before treatment and results were analyzed based on whether they had already developed antibodies or not. Patients who received the REGN-COV2 antibody infusions reduced their virus loads and symptoms faster than placebo patients, and those who had not already produced their own antibodies had the greatest responses. Both doses were well tolerated. Infusion reactions occurred in 4 patients - 2 on REGN-Covid2 and 2 on placebo - which is always a mystery to me.