Glax­o­SmithK­line, Vir gear up for EUA, cit­ing ear­ly PhI­II Covid-19 win with 'best-in-class' an­ti­body con­tender

Glax­o­SmithK­line’s big bet on Vir Biotech­nol­o­gy and its an­ti­body tech­nol­o­gy has paid off.

The part­ners say they are now ready to ap­ply for an emer­gency use au­tho­riza­tion at the FDA af­ter an in­de­pen­dent da­ta mon­i­tor­ing com­mit­tee rec­om­mend­ed that they cut a Phase III short due to “ev­i­dence of pro­found ef­fi­ca­cy.”

Cowen an­a­lyst Phil Nadeau wrote that the re­sults, com­pound­ed with in vit­ro da­ta sug­gest­ing Vir’s an­ti­body is ac­tive against mul­ti­ple vari­ants, could help the com­pa­nies leapfrog ri­vals that are fur­ther ahead. Ge­of­frey Porges of SVB Leerink sim­i­lar gave a thumbs up to the drug as it seems to “has as much neu­tral­iz­ing ac­tiv­i­ty as its com­peti­tors’ cock­tail prod­ucts.” The biotech’s shares $VIR surged 68.94% be­fore the bell, hit­ting $79.10.

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