Biotech giant Regeneron said it aims to have doses of a potential drug for COVID-19 ready to start human clinical trials by early summer.
The approach involves creating antibodies to the virus that could be used to treat the disease and to prevent it, Regeneron said in a statement Tuesday.
The company had previously said it aimed to have hundreds of thousands of doses ready for human testing in late summer, so the new goal is a significant acceleration. Regeneron said it plans to start large-scale manufacturing by the middle of next month and still plans to ramp up to hundreds of thousands of preventive doses a month by the end of summer.
“There are always so many moving parts, but … we’re hitting our best numbers, our best timelines, and things are going really well,” Dr. George Yancopoulos, Regeneron’s co-founder, president and chief scientific officer, said in a telephone interview Monday night.
Source CNBC