A few days after he switched off his rheumatoid arthritis medication to treat COVID-19, biotech company Regeneron said Monday that Phase 3 of its dual-antibody treatment for the new coronavirus is beginning.
Regeneron, based in Tarrytown, New York, said he is evaluating REGN-COV2’s ability to prevent infection in people who have not yet been infected with the virus, but who have had “close exposure to a COVID patient- 19 (as the patient’s housemate). “The study is conducted in conjunction with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
“We are conducting simultaneous adaptive trials to move as quickly as possible to provide a potential solution to prevent and treat COVID-19 infections, even in the midst of an ongoing global pandemic,” said Dr. George D. Yancopoulos, Ph. D., Co-Founder, President and Chief Scientific Officer of Regeneron in a statement. “We are pleased to collaborate with NIAID to study REGN-COV2 in our quest to prevent the spread of the virus with a cocktail of antiviral antibodies that could be available long before a vaccine.”
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The Phase 3 portion of the trial is being conducted at “approximately 100 sites” and the company is seeking to enroll 2,000 patients in the United States.
Additionally, Regeneron noted that REGN-COV2 is also in the Phase 2/3 portion of the tests to see if the cocktail can treat hospitalized and non-hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
The Phase 2/3 matching test will be conducted with approximately 2,900 (1,850 hospitalized patients, 1,050 non-hospitalized) worldwide, including locations in the US, Brazil, Mexico, and Chile.
The United States, Brazil and Mexico are three of the most affected countries, with more than 2.8 million, 1.6 million and 256,000 cases of COVID-19, respectively. The United States and Brazil are the two most affected countries, according to data provided by Johns Hopkins University.
The news comes after Regeneron and Sanofi said Thursday that their jointly developed rheumatoid arthritis medication, Kevzara, failed to reach its primary endpoint in Phase III testing.
Currently, there is no known scientific cure for the disease known as COVID-19, however, various medications are being tested to see if they can treat it.
In late June, Gilead Sciences said its antiviral drug remdesivir, which has been granted emergency use approval in the US and is approved in Europe and Japan, could cost more than $ 3,000 in the US. To treat SARS-CoV-2.
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As of Monday morning, more than 11.47 million cases of coronaviruses have been diagnosed worldwide, of which more than 2.88 million are in the United States.
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