00:00So one of the big topics of the conference has been drug pricing deals with the Trump administration that several companies have made at this point.
00:08Regeneron, one of the few companies that hasn't made such a deal so far.
00:12So is that something that investors should be anticipating is coming, or what is the status?
00:17Yeah, I think there's just a queue and a line, and we're in that line, and we have very good discussions that have been ongoing, so I think it's a matter of time, yes.
00:27A matter of time, perhaps how much time, if you could put a number to it?
00:31You'll hear about it when it happens.
00:33All right, well, keep an eye out for that one.
00:35Let's talk a little bit about your gene therapy to treat deafness.
00:38You recently got one of the FDA's new priority review vouchers.
00:43It's interesting because Eli Lilly has a very similar treatment, and they did not get the voucher.
00:48So what do you think was the secret sauce in your case that got you this voucher?
00:53Well, I think our data was much more advanced, but it was also a lot better.
00:56A much higher percentage of the children not only got hearing, but they got to the normal hearing point.
01:04I think that this is a great story.
01:06This may be, you know, a lot of people have been waiting and talking about gene therapy.
01:10This must be one of the greatest examples in history of actually gene therapy making a huge difference,
01:16not just making a slight benefit.
01:18But these kids went from completely deaf to normal hearing in several cases.
01:24And, you know, at some point you should, I welcome you to either meet some of these children or see some of the videos.
01:30It's so heartwarming to see children who were, you know, faced with so many problems now on normal trajectories in terms of development and so forth because they can hear.
01:39Yeah, absolutely.
01:40I mean, that is a life-changing treatment.
01:42And when it comes to the process here, I'm curious whether or not you applied to the FDA, or did they just give it to you, so to speak?
01:50Well, I think the FDA was very interested because they were aware of how advanced our program was, how good the data was, and how important it was for these children.
01:59And so it was a combination of us coming together with them, but they were very aware of our data, and they were very excited by it.
02:06So the commissioner of the FDA, Marty McCary, he suggested that Regeneron give away this gene therapy for deafness for free.
02:15Is that something that you are considering?
02:17Well, I think the history of Regeneron shows that we're one of the rare companies that invests a lot in creating new technologies.
02:25And when we're doing that, sometimes our goal is not to make money from that initial effort, but to really prove that we've taken technology to a new level and made it work.
02:37And that was our primary goal here.
02:39Our primary goal here was not to say, we're going to target these hundreds or a few thousand kids who might be suffering from this and trying to squeeze out every dollar.
02:48It was, let's prove that our new technology works.
02:51And that's what we were in it for.
02:53So our goal here is not necessarily to, like I said, squeeze every dollar of it.
02:57We want to help all these children, and we wanted to really prove that our technology works.
03:02I think it's a great statement.
03:03You know, the history of Regeneron, we've been around for a while now, and from the beginning, people said we were, in the early days, we were the most innovative company in the world.
03:11But we hadn't proved we could deliver drugs.
03:13Well, we've delivered more drugs and blockbusters over the last 15 years than any other company, including two of the world's leading 10 drugs.
03:20Yet we're still arguably the world leaders in biotech innovation.
03:25And this is an example.
03:26We wanted to prove that we maybe have the best gene therapy technology on the planet, and our goal is not necessarily to try to profit from the first application.
03:36Well, in addition to gene therapies, we also have to talk about obesity, of course.
03:40And last year, Regeneron, you licensed a weight loss drug from a Chinese biotech company.
03:45And you think about the obesity space right now, you could make the argument that it's looking a little crowded.
03:51And I'm curious what you see as Regeneron's opportunity specifically.
03:55Okay.
03:55So right now, people are trying to compete along the fringes, develop a new agent that might cause 1 or 2% more weight loss and take over and win.
04:05We have a completely different strategy.
04:07We have a lot of existing drugs, but also drugs that we're developing that would help obese patients if given together with the weight loss treatment.
04:17And so, for example, what a lot of people are not focusing on is the number one killer in America is still cardiovascular disease due to hyperlipidemia.
04:26Right.
04:26More than 50% of obese patients have too many lipids.
04:29And though they're very anxious to get on the weight loss therapy, they're not anxious to get on the lipid therapies.
04:34So we have a very unique approach where we can combine into the same exact auto-injector, given just as conveniently and just as affordably, not only weight loss, but you get more than 50% lipid lowering, which dramatically increases your cardiovascular risk.
04:49So imagine this.
04:50If somebody invented a new glip that not only caused weight loss, but dramatically by a different mechanism decreased your heart disease risk, everybody would take it.
04:59Well, that's what we're doing.
05:00And we're not only doing it for that.
05:02That's the first one we're rolling out.
05:04So our combination of our unique proprietary drugs, which we can combine into the same auto-injector, similarly convenient, similarly affordable, to give you a completely different benefit, but that the same patients really need.
05:18I think a lot of patients are going to benefit it, and I think the doctors are going to realize, oh, my God, I can do two for one here.
05:26And I think it's going to be a really important advance to really impact cardiovascular disease in America.
05:30All right.
Comments