Regeneron
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About
Regeneron is a pharmaceutical and biological technology company that rose to prominence during the coronavirus. In 2020, the company released an experimental antibody cocktail for COVID-19 treatment called REGN-COV2, which many, including President Donald Trump, refer to as "Regeneron." After Trump's COVID diagnosis, the President endorsed the drugs, claiming without evidence that it was a "cure" for the coronavirus.
History
In 1988, Dr. Leonard S. Schleifer founded Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.[1] Over the next three decades, the company produced numerous medicines, including Arcalyst, Dupixent, Eylea, Kevzara, Libtayo and Praluent.[2]
COVID-19 Treatment REGN-COV2
On February 4th, 2020, Regeneron[3] announced a collaboration with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to develop "therapeutics to treat the 2019 novel coronavirus."
Several months later, on September 14th, 2020, the BBC[4] reported that doctors would administer Regeneron's monoclonal antibodies, laboratory-made antibodies, to COVID-19 patients as part of the U.K. Recovery trial.
Reception
Donald Trump's Endorsement
On October 2nd, 2020, President Donald Trump tweeted that he and First Lady Melania Trump tested positive for the COVID-19.
That day, an unknown Redditor posted that Trump received "a dose of Regeneron's antibody" in the /r/AntiTrumpAlliance[5] subreddit. The post received more than 680 points (97% upvoted) and 85 comments in one week.
On October 7th, President Trump tweeted a video in which talks about the effects of Regeneron. He says, "I wasn't feeling so hot and they gave me Regeneron. It's called 'Regeneron' and other things too, but I think this is the key. It was, like, unbelievable. I felt good immediately. I felt as good three days ago as I do now." The tweet received more than 22 million views, 333,000 likes and 130,000 retweets in less than three days (shown below).
A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT! pic.twitter.com/uhLIcknAjT
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2020
Some criticized Trump's usage and endorsement of the treatment. Despite President Trump's Pro-Life beliefs, REGN-COV2 used "fetal-derived cells" in testing.[6] Some meme'd this, mistaking that the drug is made from stem cells (example below, left).
Over the next few days, people joked online about Trump's usage and promotion of the treatment (examples below, center and right).
On October 8th, the Never Trump political action committee The Lincoln Project posted a video remix of the Trump video. The post received more than 4 million views, 112,000 likes and 40,000 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below).
REGENERON! pic.twitter.com/x3PZt0onIr
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) October 8, 2020
Search Interest
External References
[3] HHS – HHS, Regeneron Collaborate to Develop 2019-nCoV Treatment
[4] BBC – Coronavirus: Monoclonal antibodies to begin UK trial
[5] Reddit – /r/AntiTrumpAlliance
[6] USA Today – Fact check: Trump's antibody therapy not made from fetal stem cells but fetal-derived cells used during testing
Top Comments
wisehowl_the_2nd
Oct 09, 2020 at 08:04PM EDT
Mothman
Oct 09, 2020 at 04:52PM EDT