Drugmaker says it could have potential coronavirus treatment ready by end of summer

Coronavirus model.
(Image credit: Saul Loeb-Pool/Getty Image)

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals is still conducting trials on its double-antibody cocktail for COVID-19, but the company will have a head start on distribution should the Food and Drug Administration grant an emergency use authorization for the potential treatment.

Regeneron on Tuesday said the U.S. government signed a $450 million dollar contract with the company to make and supply the cocktail — which consists of two human antibodies binding "non-competitively to the receptor binding domain of the virus' spike protein" hindering its ability "to escape treatment" — as part of "Operation Warp Speed," the initiative aimed at accelerating the development of and access to coronavirus vaccines and treatments during the pandemic.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.