As Ebola raged through West Africa last summer, an experimental drug was tried for the first time on two American aid workers in Liberia who were gravely ill with the virus. Both recovered, one of them rapidly.
Though it could not be said for sure that the drug, ZMapp, was responsible, patients and doctors began clamoring for it. But there was enough to treat only a handful of patients. Federal officials vowed to produce more.
Six months later, very little has been produced, diminishing the chances that the drug can be used to treat large numbers of patients in the current outbreak, which appears to be ebbing.
The delays show some gaps in preparedness and have frustrated biodefense and infectious disease experts.
“I think it’s inexcusable that they haven’t moved on it,” said Dr. Philip K. Russell, a retired major general who once ran the United States Army Medical Research and Development Command. “They’ve had months.”
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Since both sets of antibodies are probably at least somewhat different from ZMapp, they will have to be first tested in monkeys. That will happen soon, but it will delay their possible use in people.
Dr. Robinson said hundreds or thousands of treatment courses made in tobacco could be available by the end of the year. And thousands of doses made in CHO cells could be available by then. Barda’s rapid response centers could be enlisted to help manufacture using CHO cells, he said.
But it is possible that the outbreak will be over by then. In West Africa, trials have begun of other drugs that do not yet have the same results in monkeys as ZMapp but that would be available in large quantities should they prove effective.
Dr. George D. Yancopoulos, chief scientific officer of Regeneron, said the crisis had pointed up shortcomings in biodefense. “Nobody is really prepared,” he said. “Nobody in the world has rapid response capabilities.”
