Inside Regeneron: How a 32-year-old biotech that fought Ebola and made its founders billionaires is leading the coronavirus-treatment race
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals; Samantha Lee/Business InsiderRegeneron Pharmaceuticals is at the front of the pack in the race to develop a coronavirus treatment.
Founders Leonard Schleifer and George Yancopoulos have run the company as CEO and chief scientific officer since the beginning. , and Regeneron quickly developed it using technology it's been honing for more than two decades and previously used to successfully treat Ebola. "From the very beginning, as long we could support it financially, we were intent on being very broad-minded about our work and our technology development," said Neil Stahl, Regeneron's executive vice president of research and development. "Because you never really know exactly where the big successes are going to come from."Customized drugs designed to prevent and treat the coronavirus are storming into the clinic.
Dr. Betty Diamond, the director of molecular medicine at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, described Yancopoulos as "an extraordinary guy." In 1994, Merck CEO Roy Vagelos was looking for his next opportunity, as the drugmaker required executives to retire at 65.Vagelos was an icon in the Greek community and among pharmaceutical firms. When Yancopoulos was pursuing a career in academia, his father brought him articles about Vagelos, who was also the son of Greek immigrants.
Science experiments like these caused many investors to scratch their heads, SVB Leerink biotech analyst Geoffrey Porges said, as they wondered how these findings would actually make medicines that could be sold.By 2010, Regeneron had more than 1,000 employees and a market value north of $1 billion. But it still didn't have a blockbuster drug, a medicine that can rake in $1 billion or more in annual sales.
Regeneron's stock has soared over the past decade — $100 worth of shares bought at the start of 2010 would be worth more than $2,600 today. And the company has expanded rapidly — growing from 1,200 workers in early 2010 to 8,100 at the beginning of this year. Research projects that began decades ago started to pay off. Regeneron's first few approved drugs, including Eylea, were discovered using what it called trap technology, which it pioneered in the 1990s. Its most recent drugs come from another idea conceived in the '90s: its engineered mice.
The labs were running 24/7 at peak times, Stahl said. He shared one photo of a late-night celebration among scientists after running a successful experiment. But these repurposed drugs carry modest benefits — they weren't designed to fight this specific virus. Antibody drugs are custom-built against this coronavirus and could also address the massive need to treat patients earlier before they wind up in the hospital.
By August, the company plans to be able to produce 200,000 doses a month of the treatment, called REGN-COV2.Regeneron is facing intense competition The biggest question facing Regeneron is common in biotech: What's next? Last year, as Regeneron kept sliding down to a valuation close to $30 billion, the SVB Leerink analyst Porges questioned whether the company was at risk of becoming "the TiVo of biotech."
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