Vir Biotechnology CEO on its covid-19 drug candidate winning FDA nod for emergency use

George Scangos, President and CEO of Vir Biotechnology, joined Yahoo Finance to discuss the latest on the company's covid-19 antibody treatment.

Video transcript

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JULIE LA ROCHE: Welcome back to Yahoo Finance Live. I'm Julia La Roche, in for Seana Smith today. Well, some pretty major news on the COVID-19 front in terms of fighting COVID-19. Vir Biotechnology received an emergency-use authorization this week from the US Food and Drug Administration for Sotrovimab.

We're joined now by George Scangos. He is the CEO and president of Vir Biotechnology. George, for our audience, what does this mean? What does this treat-- talk to us about-- I guess, walk us through this treatment, and what does this mean in the fight against COVID-19.

GEORGE SCANGOS: Well, a strong message is, I think it's a really important day in the fight against COVID-19. We have an antibody drug that we have developed, brought through a phase three trial. The initial analysis of that showed that we had an 85% reduction in reducing hospitalization or death and on patients who had taken it. So that's quite an impressive number.

COVID cases are going down in the US now, but they're not going away. We're going to continue to need good therapies for the foreseeable future, and we're really quite excited about what we can do now, for not only patients in the US but around the world.

ADAM SHAPIRO: George, congratulations. Help us understand what the drug actually does. It's not an antiviral. Or is it an antiviral? Or does it prevent the issues that wind up making people seriously ill and then eventually, perhaps, dying?

GEORGE SCANGOS: No, it is an antiviral. The antibody recognizes the virus, it binds to the virus, and it does two things, actually, which distinguishes it from some of the other drugs that are on the market. First, it prevents the virus from infecting cells. And secondly, when people are already infected, there are a number of cells that are already infected, and they're making even more viral particles. So this particular antibody is capable of blocking the infection of new cells and killing those cells that are already infected with the virus to prevent making even more viral particles.

JULIE LA ROCHE: And George, you said something really important-- that it results in 85% reduction in all cause hospitalizations or deaths. So, as you were talking about COVID-19 globally, you got the emergency-use authorization here. How about in other parts of the world? How are you're deploying this treatment? What has that been like for you all? What are you seeing worldwide?

GEORGE SCANGOS: Yes, well, we have what's called an article five scientific assessment-- a positive opinion on that from the EU, from the CHMP Committee in Europe that does the assessment. And that opens up the door for individual countries in the EU to purchase the antibodies. So it's not quite the equivalent of an EUA, but it's as close as Europe comes, so we hope to be able to make the antibody available both in the US and Europe very soon now.

There are other parts of the world-- India, for example-- where there's a huge need for treatments. You know, it's a tragic situation. I think that tragic is an understatement. It's just devastating. And so we are working as quickly as we can to make the antibody available in India and other parts of the world that are being devastated by COVID at the moment.

ADAM SHAPIRO: And can you--

GEORGE SCANGOS: And now that's not solely an altruistic thing. I think we're not going to be free of COVID until the world is pretty much free of COVID,

ADAM SHAPIRO: So--

GEORGE SCANGOS: --as--

ADAM SHAPIRO: --how is it administered?

GEORGE SCANGOS: --you've seen how easily it travels. Hmm?

ADAM SHAPIRO: Is it a pill? Is it like-- Regeneron, I think, is administered via IV. Is a simpler way to administer this drug?

GEORGE SCANGOS: No, this is also intravenous, so you administer just like the other antibodies. We are quickly working on just a normal injection-- intramuscular injection-- so it would be similar to what you get with the vaccine or a flu shot. And that's in clinical trials right now, but the medicine for which we had the EUA is administered IV.

JULIE LA ROCHE: George, circling back to India. Are you all able to deploy this treatment in India presently?

GEORGE SCANGOS: We-- not yet. We hope to be able to very soon. We are working as quickly as we can to make that available. We, of course, need regulatory approval from the Indian government. I think that getting the EUA in the US greatly facilitates that, and so the EUA is only now issued to Wednesday, and so it's very recent. And based on that, though, we are accelerating our interactions with governments around the world-- India and other places as well.

ADAM SHAPIRO: The biotechnology that makes this an effective drug, does it have applications for viral issues other than COVID-19? Could you be growing this for other remedies?

GEORGE SCANGOS: Well, that's a very interesting question. This particular antibody, as opposed to all of the other COVID antibodies, is able to protect against other coronaviruses in addition to the COVID coronavirus-- this coronavirus. Doesn't protect against all coronaviruses, but, for example it would protect against SARS, we believe, and a whole family of coronaviruses.

So we do believe that it's important to bring forward drugs that can not only treat this pandemic but have the potential to be effective in future pandemics. And we're taking that approach with not only COVID but flu and other diseases as well. Yeah.

JULIE LA ROCHE: Well, George Scangos, president and CEO of Vir Biotechnology, I thank you so much for joining us. And congratulations, again, on the latest as it relates to your treatment and this, of course, important fight against COVID-19.