Regeneron Antibody Treatment Cuts Risk Of Death In Some Critical COVID-19 Patients, Large-Scale Study Finds

Regeneron Pharmaceutical Inc.’s REGN COVID-19 monoclonal antibody cocktail reduced the risk of death by 20% in hospitalized COVID-19 patients who have not mounted their own antibody response, a large-scale study in the U.K. published on Wednesday found.

What Happened: Regeneron said that the Phase 3 RECOVERY trial met the primary outcome, improving survival in hospitalized COVID-19 patients lacking an immune response to the coronavirus.

The UK RECOVERY trial is the first trial large enough to definitively determine whether the therapy, REGEN-COV, reduces mortality in patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19.

The trial showed that adding the antibody therapy to usual care reduced the mortality by a fifth the 28-day mortality of COVID-19 patients whose immune system had not mounted a natural antibody response of their own, known as seronegative.

Why It Matters: REGEN-COV has not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but is currently granted Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for people with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in the U.S.

Regeneron said it will request that the EUA be expanded to include appropriate hospitalized patients.

Price Action: Regeneron Pharma shares closed 0.2% lower in Tuesday’s trading at $527.49.