Regeneron Pharmaceuticals announced Tuesday that its treatment with COVID-19 antibodies has been shown in a clinical study to drastically reduce the risk of hospitalization or death among patients who test positive for the virus.
The company announced on its website that a trial with more than 4,500 patients indicated that Regeneron treatment reduced the two risks by 70 percent.
The drug cocktail was also effective in shortening the recovery time from two weeks to 10 days, according to the company’s results.
All 4,567 patients involved in the Regeneron study had at least one risk factor that put them at high risk of hospitalization or death from disease, such as obesity or heart disease, according to the company’s website.
“With approximately 60,000 individuals newly diagnosed in the U.S. each day and 40,000 still in hospital due to COVID-19, we are committed to working with government, health care providers and others to support rapid adoption and widespread use of REGEN-VOC in appropriate patients, ”Regeneron President George Yancopoulos said in a press release.
“These encouraging results confirm the rapid and significant antiviral effects of REGEN-VOC, even at much lower and subcutaneous doses,” added David Weinreich, head of global clinical development at Regeneron.
News of the effectiveness of Regeneron’s treatment comes several months after Eli Lilly announced that his own antibody treatment had been shown to be significantly effective in preventing the spread of COVID-19 among staff and residents of nursing homes. where the drug was tested.
The U.S. reported 650 deaths from COVID-19 and more than 55,000 new infections on Monday.