By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Regeneron (NASDAQ:REGN) shares rose more than 1% in Wednesday’s trading as a study found that its drug cocktail reduced the risk of death in patients whose bodies hadn’t been able to mount a natural antibody response while suffering from severe Covid-19.
The RECOVERY trial, conducted by University of Oxford, found that adding investigational REGEN-COV to usual care reduced the risk of death by 20% in patients hospitalized with a severe case of the virus.
REGEN-COV (casirivimab and imdevimab) is a cocktail of two monoclonal antibodies that’s designed specifically to block infectivity of the virus.
The injection is currently not approved but authorized for emergency use in the U.S. for treating mild-to-moderate Covid-19 in adults and pediatric patients (12 years of age and older).
Regeneron will apply with the FDA to expand the emergency use authorization to include appropriate hospitalized patients.