Interview, Fireside Chat
From “The Way Forward" Conference: Dr. Leonard S. Schleifer, Co-Founder, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals
- The speaker anticipates that the immune system may fail to generate neutralizing antibodies for several months or in some patients, leading to a plan to use antibodies to protect individuals before their own immune systems respond, a strategy validated by previous success in Ebola cases.
- Development of antibodies and neutralization is expected to be replicated within nine months, with the current virus progressing from initial detection to patient treatment in approximately five to six months.
- To prevent the selection of mutant virus forms that are resistant to single antibodies, the speaker plans to utilize a cocktail of two antibodies simultaneously, which is predicted to be superior in preventing escape variants compared to monotherapy.
- Published papers demonstrating the superiority of the antibody cocktail are expected to be available online at 2:00 PM on the day of the interview, following acceptance in Science.
- Clinical data regarding the antibody cocktail is expected "late soon," with a specific "sweet spot" for data on newly infected patients anticipated late in the summer.
- Early antiviral use is expected to decrease the duration of viral expression, while early treatment is hoped to reduce infectivity and prevent patients from becoming severely ill or contracting the virus entirely.
- While the speaker expresses confidence in the industry's ability to provide a scientific solution and believes the company's therapeutics have a good chance of success, they acknowledge that there is still a significant distance to reach full efficacy.
- Risks include the potential loss of current vaccine benefits if mutations occur in immunodominant domains via single antibody approaches, and the possibility that the immune system may not produce neutralizing antibodies at all in certain patients.