REGENERON PHARMACEUTICALS, INC. | Access to COVID-19 Products at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Status
Omitted
AGM date
Previous AGM date
Resolution details
Company ticker
REGN
Lead filer
Boston Common Asset Management
Resolution ask
Report on or disclose
ESG theme
  • Social
ESG sub-theme
  • Public health
Type of vote
Shareholder proposal
Filer type
Shareholder
Company sector
Health Care
Company HQ country
United States
Resolved clause
That shareholders of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. ("Regeneron" or the "Company") ask the Board of Directors to report to shareholders, at reasonable expense and omitting confidential and proprietary information, on whether and how Regeneron's receipt of public financial support for development and manufacture of preventives and/or therapeutics for COVID-19 is being, or will be, taken into account when making decisions that affect access to such products, such as setting prices.
Supporting statement
Regeneron has benefited from substantial public funding for COVID-19-related products. Regeneron's initial screening and selection of antibodies was supported by an expansion of an existing relationship with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority ("BARDA"), by which BARDA committed up to USD365 million for development of antibodies to treat COVID-19.1 The National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases is jointly conducting with Regeneron a trial on the efficacy of REGN-COV2 in preventing COVID-19.2

The Department of Defense ("DoD") has agreed to pay USD450 million for the manufacture and supply of doses that will comprise between 70,000 and 300,000 treatments of REGN-COV2, a "cocktail" made up of two antibodies for which Regeneron applied for emergency use authorization ("EUA") in October 2020.3 (The number of doses needed for a treatment depends on the severity of a patient's symptoms.)
Under the DoD contract, the implied price per treatment is USD1,500 if the doses end up treating 300,000 patients and USD6,500 if they end up treating 70,000 patients.4 Regeneron has not commented on the likely price of REGN-COV2.

Concerns have been raised about whether Regeneron will be able to produce an adequate supply of REGN-COV2 if it receives EUA. Regeneron has stated that expects to produce doses for 300,000 patients within a few months after its EUA application was filed and that it is collaborating with Roche to expand manufacturing capacity by three and a half times. That deal will boost global supply to between 650,000 and 2 million treatments annually.5 But the World Health Organization estimates that 300,000 new cases of COVID-19 are being identified each day.6 Regeneron may face pressure to share intellectual property in order to ensure an adequate supply of REGN-COV2, but it has not indicated whether it is willing to do so;its agreement with the DoD has been criticized for cutting back on the government's rights to license patented inventions if they are not made "available to the public on reasonable terms."7
Regeneron considers "the long-term investment and risk inherent in science and technology innovation" when setting prices.8 It is not clear how public investment is taken into account when applying that factor to actual pricing decisions. This Proposal seeks to fill these gaps by asking Regeneron to discuss whether and how the public investments in its COVID-19 products affects its analysis of those factors as well as decisions, including pricing, that could have an impact on access.its agreement with the DoD has been criticized for cutting back on the government's rights to license patented inventions if they are not made "available to the public on reasonable terms."

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