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Regeneron, Gilead in Focus as Trump Tests COVID-19 Positive
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As news of President Donald Trump testing positive for COVID-19 was made public, companies working on experimental treatments for the same automatically come under the spotlight.
Biotech major Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (REGN - Free Report) confirmed the White House statement that it provided a single 8 gram dose of its experimental COVID-19 therapy REGNCOV2 to be administered to the president.
REGN-COV2 is a combination of two monoclonal antibodies (REGN10933 and REGN10987) and was designed specifically to block infectivity of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
REGN-COV2 was provided in response to an Individual Patient Investigational New Drug (IND) application, which was commonly known as “compassionate use” request from the President’s physicians. It is being evaluated for both treatment and prevention of COVID-19.
We note that Regeneron was in news last week when it announced promising first data from a descriptive analysis of a seamless phase I/II/III study of REGN-COV2. Data showed that the candidate reduced the viral load and the time to alleviate symptoms in non-hospitalized patients with COVID-19. REGN-COV2 also showed positive trends in lowering medical visits.
Reportedly, the president was also administered Gilead Sciences’ (GILD - Free Report) antiviral drug remdesivir. The FDA granted Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to remdesivir for the COVID-19 infection. Multiple ongoing international phase III studies are evaluating the safety and efficacy of remdesivir for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection. In fact, remdesivir is pioneering the race for a possible treatment of this deadly virus.
Currently, there are no FDA-approved treatments for the severe illness caused by SARS-CoV-2. The pharma/biotech sector is racing against time to come up with treatments and vaccines to cure the contagion. Given the alarming levels of the spread and severity of the pandemic, quite a few biotechs are developing antibodies or evaluating their approved drugs or pipeline candidates to determine if they are effective enough to treat the infected patients.
While both Regeneron and Gilead are spearheading the competition for cracking the treatment of COVID-19, others too joined the club.
Earlier, another pharma giant Eli Lilly and Company (LLY - Free Report) and partner Incyte announced that their rheumatoid arthritis drug Olumiant in combination with remdesivir met the primary endpoint of reduction of time to recovery in comparison to remdesivir alone. Roche (RHHBY - Free Report) is also evaluating its arthritis drug Actemra/RoActemra in combination with remdesivir in hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia.
Each was hand-picked by a Zacks expert as the #1 favorite stock to gain +100% or more in 2020. Each comes from a different sector and has unique qualities and catalysts that could fuel exceptional growth.
Most of the stocks in this report are flying under Wall Street radar, which provides a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor.
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Regeneron, Gilead in Focus as Trump Tests COVID-19 Positive
As news of President Donald Trump testing positive for COVID-19 was made public, companies working on experimental treatments for the same automatically come under the spotlight.
Biotech major Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (REGN - Free Report) confirmed the White House statement that it provided a single 8 gram dose of its experimental COVID-19 therapy REGNCOV2 to be administered to the president.
REGN-COV2 is a combination of two monoclonal antibodies (REGN10933 and REGN10987) and was designed specifically to block infectivity of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
REGN-COV2 was provided in response to an Individual Patient Investigational New Drug (IND) application, which was commonly known as “compassionate use” request from the President’s physicians. It is being evaluated for both treatment and prevention of COVID-19.
We note that Regeneron was in news last week when it announced promising first data from a descriptive analysis of a seamless phase I/II/III study of REGN-COV2. Data showed that the candidate reduced the viral load and the time to alleviate symptoms in non-hospitalized patients with COVID-19. REGN-COV2 also showed positive trends in lowering medical visits.
Reportedly, the president was also administered Gilead Sciences’ (GILD - Free Report) antiviral drug remdesivir. The FDA granted Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to remdesivir for the COVID-19 infection. Multiple ongoing international phase III studies are evaluating the safety and efficacy of remdesivir for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection. In fact, remdesivir is pioneering the race for a possible treatment of this deadly virus.
Currently, there are no FDA-approved treatments for the severe illness caused by SARS-CoV-2. The pharma/biotech sector is racing against time to come up with treatments and vaccines to cure the contagion. Given the alarming levels of the spread and severity of the pandemic, quite a few biotechs are developing antibodies or evaluating their approved drugs or pipeline candidates to determine if they are effective enough to treat the infected patients.
While both Regeneron and Gilead are spearheading the competition for cracking the treatment of COVID-19, others too joined the club.
Earlier, another pharma giant Eli Lilly and Company (LLY - Free Report) and partner Incyte announced that their rheumatoid arthritis drug Olumiant in combination with remdesivir met the primary endpoint of reduction of time to recovery in comparison to remdesivir alone. Roche (RHHBY - Free Report) is also evaluating its arthritis drug Actemra/RoActemra in combination with remdesivir in hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia.
Regeneron currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
5 Stocks Set to Double
Each was hand-picked by a Zacks expert as the #1 favorite stock to gain +100% or more in 2020. Each comes from a different sector and has unique qualities and catalysts that could fuel exceptional growth.
Most of the stocks in this report are flying under Wall Street radar, which provides a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor.
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