It was a challenging task for Regeneron antibody cocktail, following Eli Lilly’s antibody COVID-19 treatment, to make its way into the market with considerably higher price.
In terms of efficacy, REGEN-COV has proven to be more resilient against all coronavirus variants known so far. The company reported $2.59 billion sales of its COVID-19 antibody cocktail treatment on Thursday, making its apparent dominance over the market.
As a matter of fact, the company’s antibody sales, beyond doubt, took off to another height in the second quarter that it surpassed entire first-quarter’s revenue of $2.53 billion.
The quarterly increase in REGEN-COV sales counterpoised Lilly’s antibody sales in a way that the latter reported decline in its bamlanivimab and etesevimab sales, from $810 million in the first quarter of 2021 to $149 million in the second.
The reason behind Regeneron antibody soaring sales isn’t confined to just efficacy or resilience of the drug against all variants, rather, the REGEN-COV also won FDA’s emergency use authorization to be administered at a lower dose by injection, about two months ago. Besides, the treatment has also gained another indication as a preventive measure for those who have contracted the virus.
After a gradual start, the company is now witnessing an increasing trend in the sales as 50,000 courses are being ordered on weekly basis, CEO Len Schleifer stated.
Planning to further expand the label, the Chief Scientific Officer, George Yancopoulos, said to the investors, “Still under review by the FDA are additional data which we believe could broaden the prevention application to pre-exposure prophylaxis, as well as to extend the treatment paradigm to hospitalized patients.”
An agreement has been signed between Regeneron and United States for the provision of 1.25 million REGEN-COV doses during the second quarter. The drugmaker doesn’t expect additional sales to U.S. in third quarter. As far as fourth quarter sales are concerned, it will be dependent on the number of COVID-19 cases. Bernstein analyst, Ronny Gal, predicts an additional sale of REGEN-COV worth $1.2 billion for the rest of the year.
