Regeneron Pharmaceuticals said on Monday it extended its agreement with a US health authority to provide additional supply of its Ebola treatment, amid a growing outbreak in Africa, Reuters reported on October 26. The deal is worth about $270 million — yaani about $27 crore dollars, or 0.27 billion dollars.
Source: Reuters, Oct 26
The new agreement with the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), expanding a 2020 contract, will see Regeneron supply doses of its drug Inmazeb through 2031 for about $270 million, Reuters reported. The company confirmed the same terms in its own announcement on Monday, carried by GlobeNewswire, saying the agreement continues a partnership that began with BARDA's original procurement in 2020.
Source: Regeneron via GlobeNewswire, Oct 26
A treatment for one strain — not the current one
The US Food and Drug Administration approved Inmazeb in 2020 for the treatment of infection caused by Zaire ebolavirus, Reuters reported. Inmazeb is a three-antibody cocktail of atoltivimab, maftivimab and odesivimab-ebgn, was the first Ebola treatment approved by the FDA, and has been administered to hundreds of patients since 2019, the company said. In a clinical trial, it reduced mortality by approximately 55 percent compared to an active control treatment in patients with low viral load, according to the company.
Source: Regeneron via GlobeNewswire, Oct 26; Dow Jones via Morningstar, Oct 26
The current Ebola outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain, for which there is no approved specific antiviral treatment or licensed vaccine, Reuters reported. Regeneron said it is testing its experimental therapy, maftivimab — described by Dow Jones reporting as the most potent neutralising component of the three in Inmazeb — as a potential treatment for the Bundibugyo virus.
Source: Reuters, Oct 26; Dow Jones via Morningstar, Oct 26
The widest-spread Ebola outbreak on record in Africa
The outbreak, first reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo in May, has now spread to four countries across East, Central and West Africa — the widest geographic spread of any Ebola outbreak on the continent to date, Reuters reported. It has infected nearly 10,000 people and killed more than 4,800 in Congo, Reuters reported. The disease can cause fever, vomiting, diarrhoea and, in severe cases, internal and external bleeding.
Source: Reuters, Oct 26
What is solid
- Regeneron extended its BARDA agreement to supply additional Inmazeb doses through 2031 for about $270 million (Reuters; Regeneron announcement via GlobeNewswire; Dow Jones)
- Inmazeb is FDA-approved for Zaire ebolavirus, not for the Bundibugyo strain driving the current outbreak (Reuters)
What is only claimed
- The company's statement that Inmazeb reduced mortality by about 55% versus an active control in low-viral-load patients in a clinical trial — a company-reported trial result (Regeneron via GlobeNewswire)
- Whether Regeneron's experimental maftivimab will work against Bundibugyo — it is still being tested and is not an approved treatment (Reuters)
'Maintaining a ready supply of Inmazeb is exactly the kind of preparedness this country needs for the threats we can already see on the horizon,' Regeneron co-chair and chief executive Leonard Schleifer said, in comments reported by Dow Jones Newswires via Morningstar.