As GSK-part­nered Covid an­ti­body racks up glob­al sales, Vir ax­es WuXi deal and grabs back Chi­na rights

Ear­ly on in the Covid-19 pan­dem­ic, Vir Biotech­nol­o­gy en­list­ed Chi­na’s pow­er­house CD­MO WuXi Bi­o­log­ics for cell line de­vel­op­ment, process and for­mu­la­tion de­vel­op­ment as well as ini­tial man­u­fac­tur­ing of its an­ti­bod­ies, a deal that CEO George Scan­gos said would help Vir move more quick­ly.

Now that one of those an­ti­bod­ies, sotro­vimab, is au­tho­rized in more than 40 coun­tries and en­tan­gled in a part­ner­ship with GSK, Vir is ax­ing the WuXi deal. The FDA pulled the EUA for sotro­vimab, or Xe­vudy, last month be­cause of the Omi­cron sub­vari­ant BA.2.

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