Germany buys US and Limerick firm's Covid-19 antibody used by Trump 

The biopharmaceutical firm recently announced plans to add more than 400 jobs at its Limerick facility

Germany’s health minister Jens Spahn said the government has bought 200,000 doses of the monoclonal antibody medication from Regeneron. Picture: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg

Germany is to purchase 200,000 doses of Regeneron’s Covid-19 antibody treatment used by former US President Donald Trump.

Headquartered in New York, the biopharmaceutical firm has a major operations facility in Limerick and recently announced plans to add more than 400 jobs there in order to maximise capacity at its US facility to produce large quantities of the treatment.

Germany’s health minister Jens Spahn said the government has bought 200,000 doses of the monoclonal antibody medication from Regeneron, with patients to receive the treatment free of charge.

The €400m purchase of Regeneron's REGN-COV2 treatment will make Germany the first country in the European Union to adopt this antibody in the fight against Covid-19.

Former US President Donald Trump, who was briefly hospitalised in October after he contracted the coronavirus, credited Regeneron’s antibody with helping him recover from the virus in record time.

In a video posted to his Twitter account, he said the impact of the treatment was “incredible.” 

“It was unbelievable, I felt good immediately,” he said, adding that he intended to make the treatment available to all American’s free of charge.

In October, a trial found treatment with REGN-COV2 reduced Covid-19 related medical visits by 72% in patients with one or more risk factors such as being over 50 years of age, having a body mass index greater than 30, having a cardiovascular, metabolic, lung, liver or kidney disease or having an immunocompromised status.