Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. will discontinue its development of an antibody to a virus that causes respiratory tract infections after the antibody performed poorly in a recent study.
Regeneron said a phase-3 study evaluating the antibody, called suptavumab, did not meet its primary endpoint of preventing respiratory syncytial virus infections in infants. Though suptavumab did show signs of efficacy in a subgroup of patients, adverse events were generally balanced between suptavumab and a placebo.
“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 George D. Yancopoulos, president and chief scientific officer of Regeneron. “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 double-blind global study enrolled 1,149 healthy, preterm infants who were randomized to either receive suptavumab as a single dose, suptavumab as two doses eight weeks apart, or a placebo. The Tarrytown-based biotechnology company plans to present data from the study at a future medical congress.
Last month, Regeneron and its French pharmaceutical partner Sanofi announced that the European Commission had authorized the companies”™ antibody drug sarilumab to treat patients with rheumatoid arthritis under certain conditions.
