Research

The Race for the Ebola Vaccine

Wed, 2015-01-07 15:26 — mike kraft

THE DAILY BEAST by Abby Haglage Jan. 7, 2015

...Although a few smaller companies have become involved in the race for a vaccine, three major pharmaceutical makers are taking the lead—each pursuing a different vaccine. The trials are unprecedented for a variety of reasons, including the rapid timeline (trials of this nature generally take three to four years).

Steve Parsons-WPA Pool/Getty Images

Each individual race involves an unusual collaboration between researchers, manufacturers, and public-health entities. Together, the teams are working 24 hours a day for a product that promises much higher risk than it does profit.

Here’s what you need to know about the Ebola vaccine front-runners.

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/07/the-race-for-the-ebola-vaccine.html

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J&J, Bavarian Nordic start clinical tests in Ebola vaccine race

Tue, 2015-01-06 14:52 — mike kraft

REUTERS by Ben Hirschler Jan. 6, 2015
LONDON --Johnson & Johnson has started clinical trials of its experimental Ebola vaccine, which uses a booster from Denmark's Bavarian Nordic, making it the third such shot to enter human testing.

The initiation of the Phase I study in Britain, which had been expected about now, marks further progress in the race to develop a vaccine against a disease that has killed more than 8,000 people in West Africa since last year.

Two other experimental vaccines, one from GlaxoSmithKline and a rival from NewLink and Merck, are already in clinical development. However, the J&J vaccine offers a different approach, since it involves two separate injections.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/06/us-health-ebola-vaccine-j-j-idUSKBN0KF0HH20150106

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Ebola: as ZMapp stocks run out doctors turn to alternative treatments

Mon, 2015-01-05 20:50 — mike kraft

THE GUARDIAN by Sarah Boseley Jan, 5, 2015
LONDON --Even at the Royal Free hospital in London, the lead UK specialist centre for Ebola, doctors have limited options for treating their patients. In the end, survival may depend more on the strength of an individual’s immune system than anything medical science is currently able to do.

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Merck-NewLink Ebola vaccine trial resumes at lower dose: Geneva hospital

Mon, 2015-01-05 18:32 — mike kraft

(Two stories. Scroll down.)

REUTERS Jan. 5, 2015

GENEVA --The clinical trial of an Ebola vaccine developed by Merck and NewLink resumed on Monday at a lower dose after a pause to assess complaints of joint pains in some volunteers, the University of Geneva hospital said.

The Geneva hospital announced on Dec. 11 that its vaccine trial had been suspended as a precautionary measure after four patients complained of joint pains. On Monday, the hospital said 10 of 59 volunteers who received the vaccine had felt pains in their joints "similar to rheumatism" after some two weeks, but these symptoms had disappeared rapidly without any treatment.

Swissmedic, the Swiss regulatory agency, and ethics and safety committees have approved the resumption of the trial at a lower dose, the hospital said in a statement.

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Where Could Ebola Strike Next? Scientists Hunt Virus In Asia January 02, 2015

Fri, 2015-01-02 18:26 — mike kraft

NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO by Michaeleen Doucleff Jan. 2, 2015

...Scientists think bats likely triggered the entire Ebola epidemic in West Africa....

So now the big question is: Where else in the world is Ebola hiding out in bats? Where could the next big outbreak occur?

Ecologists found signs of Ebola in a Rousettus leschenaultii fruit bat. These bats are widespread across south Asia, from India to China. Kevin Olival/EcoHealth Alliance

.. ecologist Kevin Olival at EcoHealth Alliance in New York City... hunts down another virus in bats, called Nipah. In humans, it causes inflammation in the brain and comas....

Nipah has outbreaks every few years in Bangladesh. So Olival went there back in 2010 and captured a bunch of bats. Many had signs of Nipah in their blood. Others had something surprising: "There's antibodies to something related to Ebola Zaire."

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FDA allows testing of Aethlon device in Ebola patients

Fri, 2015-01-02 16:34 — mike kraft

REUTERS Jan. 2, 2015

SAN DIEGO- Calif. --Aethlon Medical Inc said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had approved the testing in Ebola patients of its bio-filtration device, which was used against the deadly virus in a critically ill patient in Germany who later recovered.

The device, being developed as a broad-spectrum countermeasure against pandemic threats, filters viruses and toxins from the blood.

It is currently being tested in India for its ability to accelerate viral load depletion when used in combination with hepatitis C standard-of-care drug therapy.

Patients will be treated for six to eight hours daily with the device, called Aethlon's Hemopurifier, until the Ebola viral load drops below 1,000 copies/ml.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/02/health-ebola-aethlon-med-idUSL3N0UH15720150102

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FDA approves new Roche Ebola test for emergency use

Mon, 2014-12-29 16:14 — mike kraft

WASHINGTON POST by Rachel Feltman Dec. 29, 2014

Pharmaceutical company Roche announced Monday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had provided an Emergency Use Authorization -- a sort of pre-approval for use in particularly bad outbreaks -- for a new kind of Ebola test.

This isn't the first test to get this kind of approval during the 2014 outbreak of the Zaire strain of Ebola, which has killed more than 7,500 people to date and is still an ongoing crisis in parts of West Africa....

So it's no surprise that Swiss company Roche has put its version of a rapid test forward. The LightMix Ebola Zaire rRT-PCR Test works in about three hours, and is designed for Roche's testing consoles.

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Clinical trial for potential Ebola treatment started in MSF clinic in Guinea

Sat, 2014-12-27 22:09 — mike kraft

MEDECINES SANS FRONTIERS Dec. 26, 2014

A clinical trial for a possible treatment for Ebola started in Guinea on the 17th of December. The trial is led by the French medical research institute INSERM and is taking place at MSF’s Ebola Treatment Centre in Guéckédou, in the east of the country. Although every experimental treatment for Ebola patients offers hope, MSF remains prudent. There’s no guarantee that the drug will be effective and safe, and even if it is, it will not mean the end of the epidemic which continues to spread in the three most affected countries of West Africa.

The trial aims to include as many Ebola positive patients presenting at the MSF treatment centre in Guéckédou as possible. There will be no control group (group of patients who do not receive the treatment) in this study, as it is considered unethical to deny a group of patients the higher chance of survival that may come with the new treatment, especially given the high mortality of Ebola. Instead the outcomes of the patients will be measured against those of MSF patients admitted earlier this year, before the trial began. The first conclusive results are not expected before the first trimester of 2015....

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Next in Ebola Plan: UN Teams to Study Lines of Transmission

Fri, 2014-12-26 14:17 — mike kraft

REUTERS Dec. 24, 2014

ACCRA—Medical detective work will be the next big phase in the fight against Ebola when the United Nations deploys hundreds of health workers to identify chains of infection as the virus passes from person to person, top U.N. health workers said.
Health workers bury the body of a suspected Ebola victim at a cemetery in Freetown, Dec. 21, 2014.

The health teams will travel to each district and region of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, the three countries at the center of the epidemic, to trace who each infected person has potentially contacted.

The effort will run in parallel with measures to minimize the spread of infection, such as treating all Ebola patients in specialized centers and burying all victims safely.

But Phase Two of the plan is to contain the virus by understanding its lines of transmission, said World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan.

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Ebola raises profile of blood-based therapy

Tue, 2014-12-23 18:43 — mike kraft

NATURE by Delcan Butler Dec. 23, 2014

With no drugs available to treat Ebola, eyes are turning to a therapy that had largely been relegated to the history books: transfusing patients with blood plasma donated by survivors, which contains antibodies against the virus.

Survivors of Ebola carry antibodies that might be used to save the lives of those infected with the virus. Michel du Cille/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Clinical trials of convalescent plasma therapy (CPT) have started in the past few weeks in Liberia, and are due to begin soon in Guinea and Sierra Leone. If the therapy saves lives, the approach could quickly be scaled up.

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