November 30, 2021

expert reaction to information from Regeneron saying they are evaluating REGEN-COV® and next generation antibodies against the new omicron COVID-19 variant

Regeneron has issued a statement to say they are evaluating REGEN-COV® (casirivimab and imdevimab) against the Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant.

Prof Penny Ward, Independent Pharmaceutical Physician, Visiting Professor in Pharmaceutical Medicine at King’s College London, said:

“Based on the number and position of the mutations reported in the omicron variant, it is possible that the monoclonal antibody treatments directed against the spike protein from the original strain might bind less well and thereby lose some effectiveness against this strain.  To check this, the concentrations of these antibodies needed to protect cells from infection caused by different virus trains can be assessed in in vitro experiments and this can give some indication of the extent of loss of effectiveness and also whether or not this can be restored by changing the dose of the treatment when given.  So far Regeneron has evaluated a model of the revised spike protein binding and estimated the effect this might have on Ronapreve effectiveness, but need to do more experiments in cell cultures and perhaps in animals to explore this further.  They are also likely to be thinking about the revised antibody sequences that might restore the combination to full strength against (and other) strains, so all is not lost and, as with the vaccines, new antibody cocktails may soon make their way into the clinic, if needed.”

https://investor.regeneron.com/static-files/969bdb0b-53f5-46c7-94fb-7473ee7f5be3

All our previous output on this subject can be seen at this weblink:

www.sciencemediacentre.org/tag/covid-19

Declared interests

Prof Penny Ward: “I am semi-retired, but I am owner/Director of PWG Consulting (Biopharma) Ltd a consulting firm advising companies on drug and device development. Between December 2016 and July 2019 I served as Chief Medical Officer of Virion Biotherapeutics Ltd, a company developing antiviral treatments for respiratory viral diseases. Previous employee of Roche, makers of tocilizumab (anti IL6 antibody) and CMO of Novimmune, makers of empalumab (anti IFN gamma antibody).”