The platform Regeneron co-founder George Yancopoulos helped build yielded the first successful Ebola drug. Now, they face an even bigger test in Covid-19. (Regeneron)

With all eyes on their Covid-19 drug, Re­gen­eron wins a land­mark ap­proval in Ebo­la

For the first time, the FDA has ap­proved a ther­a­py for Ebo­la, hand­ing a land­mark OK to Re­gen­eron at the same mo­ment that the New York biotech awaits word from the agency on a sim­i­lar drug they de­vel­oped for Covid-19.

Re­gen­eron de­vel­oped the drug, a cock­tail of 3 neu­tral­iz­ing Ebo­la an­ti­bod­ies now known as In­mazeb, dur­ing the 2014-2016 West African out­break, and when cas­es rose again in the DRC in 2018, the NIH se­lect­ed it as one of four drugs to be test­ed in a large, first-of-its-kind clin­i­cal tri­al. The study was halt­ed 12 months lat­er af­ter two drugs showed over­whelm­ing ef­fi­ca­cy. About a third of Ebo­la pa­tients who re­ceived the Re­gen­eron drug died, com­pared with just over 50% for the an­ti­body ZMapp.

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