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Regeneron discovers, invents, develops, manufactures and commercializes medicines to treat serious medical conditions. The company was founded in 1988, by Eric Shooter, George D. Yancopoulos, and Leonard S. Schleifer (CEO), in Tarrytown, New York, United States.
The company markets medicines for eye diseases, colorectal cancer, allergies, inflammatory disease, metabolic diseases, cardiovascular diseases and infectious diseases. Product candidates in development are in hypercholesterolemia, oncology, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma and atopic dermatitis. Regeneron also develops treatments for viral infections such as those caused by Ebola and coronavirus 2019-nCoV. The coronavirus strain has more recently been renamed SARS-CoV-2 with the disease called COVID-19 (coronavirus disease).
Regeneron developed chimeric genetically engineered mice with fully human immune systems that, when injected with a foreign antigenic substance, will generate human antibodies. The drugs Dupixent and Libtayo are antibodies developed using these mice. Dupixent is a drug for eczema and Libtayo is a cancer immunotherapy.
Regeneron used their chimeric mice to develop antibodies against the Ebola virus in 2014 during the outbreak in West Africa. The federal Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) supported Regeneron in developing a three-antibody cocktail called EB3 for human testing. EB3 was not used in West Africa as the outbreak subsided in 2015. EB3 was used in a clinical trial in the Democratic Republic of Congo with 65% patients who received a one-time therapy surviving their infections compared to 33% of patients overall.
The company plans to use their chimeric mice to develop a preventative treatment for coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (previously called 2019-nCoV), which is responsible for an outbreak of the disease COVID-19, declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO). Regeneron’s team is focused on a region of the virus’s genome the encodes a spike protein, which bypasses cellular defenses in order to infect cells. The team generated a pseudo-virus that couldn’t replicate or cause illness but would mimic the part of 2019-nCoV that penetrates the cell. Immunizing against their spike-coated pseudo-virus generates antibodies that could prevent this strain of coronavirus from getting into cells. The company aims to package a handful of antibodies together as a cocktail with different antibodies binding the same target without competing with each other. This approach will increase the chance of the treatment working as the virus evolves. Regeneron’s SARS-CoV-2 (2019-nCoV) treatment development is supported by BARDA. Two of their neutralizaing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 are REGN3048 and REGN3051 which bind to S-protein of MERS coronavirus in circulating blood with reduced viral loads in the lungs.
The company is looking to launch clinical trials to explore whether or their arthritis drugs could be repurposed to treat symptoms of novel coronavirus infections. Sanofi and Regeneron are conducting clinical trials for their IL-6 inhibitor antibody called Kevzara (sarilumab), a drug already used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, for treatment of severe cases of COVID-19. The treatment has the potential to calm an overactive immune response.
EYLEA injection – neovascular age related macular degeneration
ARCALYST – Cryoprin-Associated Periodic Syndrome, Familial Cold Auto-inflammatory Syndrome, Muckle-Wells Syndrome
DUPIXENT - Eczema
Kevzara (Sarilumab) - Rheumatoid arthritis
Libtayo - Cancer Immunotherapy
PRALUENT injection – adults with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia, clinical atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease
