With coronavirus rapidly spreading throughout the world at an unprecedented rate, the federal government is turning to an area company to help develop a treatment to combat the virus.

Tarrytown-based Regeneron Pharmaceuticals reached an expanded agreement with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to help combat the virus, which has impacted more than 81,000 people across the globe as of Thursday, Feb. 27.

A total of 81,109 cases have been confirmed globally. Of those cases, 78,191 cases have been confirmed in China, with 2,918 outside China, the World Health Organization announced. The risk assessment remains “very high” in China, and “high” globally.

There have been 53 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States. More than 1,000 have been killed and 4,200 infected internationally.

To battle coronavirus, Regeneron is turning to “VelociSuite” technologies,” which are “ particularly well-suited for use in quickly-developing outbreak situations, as was done for Ebola.”

According to reports, Regeneron is working on multiple approaches to battle the virus and may have an experimental fix as soon as three to six months from now, with human testing in the summer.

"The life-saving results seen with our investigational Ebola therapy last year underscore the potential impact of Regeneron's rapid response platform for addressing emerging outbreaks," George Yancopoulos, President and Chief Scientific Officer of Regeneron. said in a statement. ”Our unique suite of technologies expedites and improves the drug discovery and development process at every stage, positioning Regeneron to respond quickly and effectively to new pathogens.

Regeneron noted that there is no risk to Westchester residents, as they will not be using live coronavirus during any testing.

“We are eager to expand our productive collaboration with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority and are already working hard to address the novel coronavirus that is causing worldwide concern.”

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