(Reuters) – Regeneron Pharmaceuticals said on Wednesday it expects to report biomarker data for its COVID-19 antibody cocktail by the end of this month.
The drugmaker last month struck a partnership with Roche AG to make and supply the COVID-19 antibody cocktail, which is being tested on several hundreds of patients after it prevented and treated the respiratory disease in animals.
Regeneron has already signed a $450 million deal for the cocktail with the U.S. government, under the Trump administration’s “Operation Warp Speed” program that is aimed at the faster distribution of vaccines and treatments to fight the new coronavirus when trials are successful.
The company said on Wednesday it was moving manufacturing of some of its products to Ireland to increase the production capacity of the cocktail and might look for other supply partners if there is a lot of demand.
Regeneron’s cocktail, REGN-COV2, contains an antibody made by the company and another isolated from recovered COVID-19 patients. Rivals Eli Lilly and AbbVie are also pursuing antibody therapies for the respiratory illness.
Shares of Regeneron were up 1.4% at $569.68.
(Reporting by Trisha Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni)
