Regeneron is a biotechnology company best known for developing some of the most commercially successful biologic drugs in the world, particularly in eye disease and inflammatory conditions. Founded in the late 1980s, it has grown into a company generating over $14 billion in annual revenue, largely on the strength of two blockbuster products: Eylea for vision loss and Dupixent for conditions driven by overactive immune responses. The company is also recognized for its proprietary technology that produces fully human antibodies, its large-scale genetics research program, and its rapid development of a COVID-19 antibody treatment during the pandemic.
Eylea and the Treatment of Vision Loss
Regeneron’s first major commercial success was Eylea, a drug approved by the FDA in 2011 for wet age-related macular degeneration, one of the leading causes of vision loss in older adults. Eylea works by blocking a protein called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) that triggers abnormal blood vessel growth in the back of the eye. These leaky, fragile vessels damage the retina and progressively destroy central vision. By neutralizing VEGF with regular eye injections, Eylea slows or stops that damage.
Regeneron later introduced a higher-dose version called Eylea HD, which allows patients to go longer between injections. In the PULSAR clinical trial, patients on the higher dose gained roughly 6 to 7 letters of visual acuity at 48 weeks while needing fewer total injections than those on the original formulation. In 2024, combined global sales of Eylea and Eylea HD reached approximately $9.5 billion, with about $6 billion of that coming from the U.S. alone. For years, Eylea has been one of the top-selling drugs in all of medicine.
Dupixent: A New Class of Treatment for Inflammation
Dupixent is arguably the product that defines Regeneron’s current trajectory. Originally approved for moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis (eczema) in adults, it has since expanded to an unusually wide range of inflammatory conditions. As of 2025, Dupixent is approved for eight distinct conditions: atopic dermatitis, asthma, chronic sinus disease with nasal polyps, eosinophilic esophagitis, prurigo nodularis (a condition causing intensely itchy skin nodules), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic spontaneous urticaria (hives), and bullous pemphigoid (a blistering skin disease).
The drug works by blocking a specific part of the immune signaling pathway responsible for the type of inflammation that drives allergic and eosinophilic diseases. Its clinical results in eczema illustrate the impact: in pivotal trials, about 51% of adults on Dupixent achieved at least a 75% improvement in their eczema severity score at 16 weeks, compared to just 15% on placebo. Itch scores showed a similar pattern, with roughly 40% of patients reaching meaningful itch relief versus about 12% on placebo. In children ages 6 to 11, responses were even higher, with 75% achieving that 75% skin improvement threshold when the drug was combined with topical treatments.
Global net sales of Dupixent hit $14.15 billion in 2024, a 22% increase over the prior year, making it one of the best-selling drugs in the world. Regeneron developed Dupixent in collaboration with Sanofi, which handles much of its international commercialization.
The VelocImmune Platform
What sets Regeneron apart from many pharmaceutical companies is the technology it uses to discover drugs in the first place. The company’s proprietary platform, called VelocImmune, uses genetically engineered mice whose immune systems have been partially humanized. When these mice are exposed to a disease target, they produce antibodies that are fully human in structure, meaning they can be developed into drugs without the immune rejection problems that older mouse-derived antibodies caused in patients.
This technology, part of a broader suite Regeneron calls VelociSuite, has enabled the development of a significant proportion of all original fully human monoclonal antibodies currently approved by the FDA. The concept originated from work by Regeneron’s Chief Scientific Officer, George Yancopoulos, during his time as a graduate student. It gives the company an unusually efficient pipeline for generating drug candidates, and Regeneron also licenses these technologies to collaborators.
COVID-19 Antibody Treatment
Regeneron gained widespread public attention in 2020 when it developed REGEN-COV, a cocktail of two monoclonal antibodies designed to neutralize the virus that causes COVID-19. The treatment became a household name in part because it was administered to then-President Donald Trump during his COVID-19 diagnosis. REGEN-COV received emergency use authorization from the FDA for patients at high risk of severe disease. The cocktail worked by using two antibodies that targeted different parts of the virus’s spike protein, reducing the chance that viral mutations could evade treatment. Its authorization was later revised as new variants emerged that reduced its effectiveness.
Large-Scale Genetics Research
Regeneron operates one of the largest genetics research programs in the industry through its Regeneron Genetics Center. The program has sequenced the exomes (the protein-coding portions of DNA) of nearly 3 million people, linking that genetic data to health records to find connections between specific gene variants and disease.
Several notable discoveries have come out of this effort. Researchers identified a rare mutation in the GPR75 gene, found through sequencing nearly 650,000 individuals, that is associated with a reduced risk of obesity. They also found rare mutations in two genes, CIDEB and HSD17B13, that protect against nonalcoholic liver disease. People carrying one mutated copy of CIDEB had a 53% lower risk of developing the serious form of fatty liver disease known as NASH. And by studying a founder population in the Orkney Islands, the team identified a specific mutation in the BRCA1 gene linked to breast and ovarian cancer. These kinds of findings feed directly into Regeneron’s drug development pipeline by highlighting new biological targets.
Oncology and the Pipeline Ahead
Regeneron has been expanding aggressively into cancer treatment. Its approved cancer drug, cemiplimab, treats advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (a type of skin cancer) by blocking PD-1, a protein that tumors exploit to hide from the immune system. The company is testing cemiplimab in additional cancers including lung cancer and liver cancer.
A large part of Regeneron’s oncology strategy relies on bispecific antibodies, engineered molecules designed to grab onto two different targets at once. For example, one candidate called linvoseltamab targets both a protein on myeloma cells and a protein on immune cells, essentially acting as a bridge that forces the immune system to attack the cancer. Others in development use similar two-target approaches for ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, and various lymphomas. The company has at least eight bispecific antibody programs in mid-to-late-stage clinical trials, making it one of the more ambitious oncology pipelines in biotech.
Company Culture and Industry Standing
Regeneron has been ranked the number one biopharmaceutical employer by Science magazine for three consecutive years, based on the journal’s annual survey of scientists working in the industry. The company, headquartered in Tarrytown, New York, has maintained a reputation for being unusually science-driven in its culture, with its leadership team composed largely of physician-scientists rather than career executives. Its full-year 2024 revenue reached $14.2 billion, an 8% increase over 2023, placing it among the top-tier standalone biotech companies globally.