GSK, Vir bar­rel in­to a fast PhII/III for their lead Covid-19 an­ti­body, chas­ing a mov­ing tar­get with quick OK in sight

Now that Eli Lil­ly and Re­gen­eron have strayed off sched­ule on the de­vel­op­ment of new an­ti­bod­ies to fight Covid-19, Glax­o­SmithK­line ex­ecs and their part­ners at Vir are jump­ing in­to the clin­ic. And they say they could have the first da­ta cut ahead of the end of this year, with late-stage da­ta in Q1 com­ing up that could put them on a short path to a quick OK at the FDA.

The move comes as all the com­pa­nies in­volved in an­ti­body R&D won­der just how big their mar­ket could be as new and un­cer­tain vac­cines shape the mar­ket in 2021. That’s a mov­ing tar­get, with ma­jor im­pli­ca­tions for every­one in­volved. And some of the an­a­lysts cov­er­ing the race are skep­ti­cal that GSK and Vir can play a lead­ing role now that they let oth­ers jump clear­ly out front.

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