It sure is nice to have multiple shots on goal.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals
Regeneron didn't even bother to issue a press release about it or hold a conference call to discuss the ramifications; it just filed a short 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission to let shareholders know the bad news. Investors shrugged it off in kind. Shares are essentially flat today.
It's not that REGN475/SAR164877 doesn't work; the drug passed a phase 2 trial testing it in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee. But Regeneron has a bunch of other drugs that are farther along, which make up a majority of its value.
For instance, VEGF Trap-Eye looks like it'll have a fairly easy time getting past the FDA now that the company has announced two positive phase 3 trials. Regeneron also has two other phase 3 compounds: cancer drug aflibercept and its already-approved Arcalyst, which is being tested as a treatment for gout. And there's Regeneron's deal with Sanofi to develop four to five new drugs per year through 2017. The company can certainly afford to lose a phase 2 pipeline candidate.
The clinical hold might actually affect Pfizer
If the class was going to die, being late to the party like Sanofi, Regeneron, and Johnson & Johnson
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