Why Regeneron Earnings Are Taking a Backseat to Its COVID-19 Update

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: REGN | REGN Price Prediction) reported its first-quarter financial results before the markets opened on Tuesday. While the earnings were important, and fairly positive, more investors seemed interested in the COVID-19 update.

In terms of the results, the company said that it had $6.60 in earnings per share (EPS) and $1.83 billion in revenue. That compared with consensus estimates of $6.13 in EPS and $1.76 billion in revenue, as well as the $4.45 per share and $1.37 billion posted in the same period of last year.

As for the COVID-19 update, Regeneron is advancing REGN-COV2, a novel investigational antibody “cocktail” treatment designed to prevent and treat the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In April, Regeneron moved its leading neutralizing antibodies into preclinical and clinical-scale cell production lines and plans to begin clinical studies in June 2020. The company is working to rapidly scale up manufacturing, with a goal to have hundreds of thousands of preventative doses available by the end of August 2020.

In order to enable the U.S. manufacturing site to produce large-scale quantities of REGN-COV2, the company is working with the FDA to accelerate licensing of additional commercial products manufactured at its Ireland facility.

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Regeneron expects fully recruited clinical studies to remain generally on track. The company has paused new enrollment in certain studies in light of the pandemic and continues to monitor the evolving situation across global trial sites.

Leonard S. Schleifer, M.D., Ph.D., president and CEO of Regeneron, commented:

Over 30 years, the Regeneron team has built a science and technology engine uniquely suited to address the COVID-19 pandemic and we are applying our signature passion, innovation, and drive to advance solutions. Our novel antibody cocktail, REGN-COV2, which is specifically-designed for both prevention and treatment, is expected to begin human studies in June and we are working in parallel to have large-scale quantities available by late summer.

Regeneron stock traded up over 5% on Tuesday to $572.04, in a 52-week range of $271.37 to $577.76. The consensus price target is $531.50.

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