Regeneron abandons respiratory syncytial virus therapy after late-stage failure

REGN2222, as the drug is known, failed in a recent Phase 3 trial to meet its primary endpoint of preventing medically attended RSV infections in infants. However, the company did make it known that the therapy did show efficacy in a subgroup of patients

In the trial, 1,149 infants aged six months or younger were given 30mg/kg suptavumab as a single dose or a twin dose administered eight weeks apart, or placebo. Patients were monitored for 150 days to ascertain whether they required medical attention at any point, defined as hospitalisation or seeking medical care as a result of their RSV infection.

"We are disappointed in these results, as we had hoped suptavumab might offer a new option for the thousands of infants impacted by serious RSV infections every year," said Regeneron CSO George Yancopoulos in a statement.  "Regeneron has a robust pipeline across many serious diseases, and we look forward to important data readouts from other programs in the coming weeks and months,"

The news is unlikely to cause any great impact to Regeneron or the wider public; the US firm has seen a string of successes in recent times that can comfortably offset this unfortunate set of events, while, according to the WHO, there are over 20 candidates from 12 different companies already in the RSV vaccine pipeline, meaning there is still promise of an effective preventative measure being made available to patients down the line.