Thread by @Regeneron

1) A lot of you are just getting to know #Regeneron – welcome, and perhaps it’s time to clear a few things up… (thread)

2) Regeneron is the name of our company – we make many different medicines for many serious diseases & have been around for 30+ years. We are a group of about 9K people, many of us scientists, MDs and/or engineers. More here: bit.ly/37MUFXA

3) Our investigational antibody combination therapy (known as ‘REGN-COV2’) is currently being tested in clinical trials. It was invented this year using our proprietary technologies that were developed over the course of 30 years.

4) We also invented a completely different antibody combination for #Ebola that was just approved by the FDA earlier this month.

5) We did not use human stem cells or human embryonic stem cells in our COVID-19 program. Like many other science-focused organizations, we do use these tools in a responsible & limited manner for certain early research. More here: bit.ly/2HDXcIm

6) Of the many experiments in our COVID-19 program, one involved using the HEK293T cell line to help us select potent virus-neutralizing antibodies. HEK293T is a 40+ year old ‘immortalized’ cell line that was originally derived from embryonic kidney cells in the 1970s.

7) HEK293Ts are commercially available & very commonly used by research labs. They have been involved in the development of important vaccines & therapeutics for conditions such as hemophilias A/B & Type 2 diabetes. Original literature is available here: bit.ly/3jtUqCF

8) Since 2015, we have collaborated with the U.S. Government to apply our technologies & expertise against a range of infectious diseases. In 2020, we have partnered with OWS, HHS, BARDA & NIAID on certain aspects of our COVID & Ebola programs.

9) We’ve always been transparent that, if REGN-COV2 is authorized for emergency use, initial supply will be limited despite our significant efforts to ramp up capacity. This is because antibody medicines are complex & time-intensive to make.

10) We started scaling up as early as possible back in April (before we even had data, just in case our studies were successful) & partnered with Roche to significantly expand capacity starting in 2021.

11) The U.S. Government has acquired the initial supply: enough to treat approx. 300K people over the next few months (with ~50K doses ready now), should regulators authorize use.

12) The U.S. Government will distribute & allocate these ~300K doses & has stated that it is committed to making them available to the American people for free.

13) We’re a group of people working as hard as we possibly can to fight this terrible & disruptive disease. It’s been an unexpected & challenging year for us all, but we’re optimistic about what we can do by harnessing the power of science.

14) Thanks for reading, & for taking a minute to learn more about Regeneron beyond the memes! Here are a few other things – besides our COVID-19 efforts – that we were particularly proud of this year.