Novartis warning gives Regeneron a boost

Fresh safety concerns about Novartis’s new eye drug gave Regeneron, its competitor, a bit of a stock boost yesterday. The American Society of Retina Specialists sent a letter to its members over the weekend, warning them that the Novartis drug for wet age-related macular degeneration, Beovu, had a new side effect: vasculitis. There’s apparently no way to predict which patients will experience this side effect, according to an email obtained by STAT.

Regeneron, meanwhile, has its own drug for the same indication called Eylea. Analysts had initially predicted that, thanks to the competition from Novartis, sales for Eylea would be flat this year. But if sales grow instead as they have in previous years, STAT’s Matthew Herper writes, it could mean another $600 million in sales for Regeneron.