NO experimental drug ZMapp for ebola infected in the US

a reply to: DigitalJedi805

It's not a product as of yet. They aren't even in Phase 1 testing, so yeah, they have absolutely no reason to have a large stock of their formulation around. No reason whatsoever. If there hadn't been an emergency situation, this drug wouldn't have seen the light of day for at least another 6 years. Sometimes there are up to two clinical tests per Phase, each of which can take over a year, and then once Phase 3 is complete if it is still a viable and safe medication they can file a New Drug Application (NDA) with the FDA. Which can take 6 months or more for it to be reviewed, then some waiting during the "quiet period" before the FDA makes a decision.

Yes this is Mapp's proprietary formulation, it belongs to them, but the work is actually being done by Leaf Biopharmaceutical, and though Mapp is still involved in production, manufacturing is being done by Kentucky Bioprocessing.

Yes their website is god awful, but there is no reason to condemn this company or declare that they are a scam based upon the aesthetics of their website.

ZMapp's Journey: How the U.S. Screwed Up in the Fight Against Ebola

It’s still uncertain how effective ZMapp is, because only a handful of people have taken it. But doctors would have had a better idea if it hadn’t been stuck in the federal bureaucracy for four years. The drug’s path through the research labs of the Washington-Baltimore corridor shows that the federal government still isn’t good at producing drugs. Barda needs money. DTRA can’t move quickly. And the U.S., until now, hasn’t made Ebola a priority. “That’s why we don’t have an Ebola countermeasure,” says Kadlec. “We failed to invest enough dollars to have it mature.”Barda now has given Mapp Biopharmaceutical a $25 million contract to start clinical trials with ZMapp. This is encouraging, but it hasn’t fixed the problem. The Pentagon and the HHS have a list of threats, and no real way to work down the list, devising treatments and getting them through the FDA’s approval process.

Every outbreak will make every administration look feckless and incompetent. But the U.S., at the very least, needs to admit to itself that to improve readiness, it needs to function like a drugmaker—and be good at it. “As long as there’s not sufficient money to address every one of the targeted diseases,” says Senator Burr, “it’s going to force the system to make a decision based on what’s the greatest threat today.”

www.businessweek.com...

a reply to: drwill

Is like everything in the land of opportunity and greed, one small company develops a possible vaccine, but because nobody care about poor nations like Africa the profiteers can not get much from good intentions.

Now that is worldwide possible spread of a deadly disease the greed and beroucarcy stand in the way of saving people until is too late.

US wants Tekmira to be the one developing the ebola vaccine, TKM-Ebola, an anti-Ebola virus RNAi therapeutic, why? you ask when ZMapp already is been use? because Monspanton has partnered with Tekmira.

WHAT DO MONSANTO, TEKMIRA AND THE EBOLA VIRUS HAVE IN COMMON?

mrscottyl.blogspot.com...

You all do realize that ZMapp is rendered down out of specially bio-engineered tobacco plants? So in order to make more, they have to grow more plants, and it's not exactly an easy process because the crop has to be monitored to make sure the plants are correctly manufacturing the right proteins in the right ways?

They weren't set up to manufacture large scale because all they've done is test in animals.

a reply to: ketsuko

You are absolutely correct. Which is why Kentucky Bioprocessing is involved. They are a subsidiary of Reynolds American.

a reply to: marg6043

www.news.com.au...

Not to worry, look who else has jumped on the wagon

a reply to: steaming

The problem is not a company having the vaccine and ready to be delivered, the problem is the US holding on the rights to ebola vaccine rights, see companies wants to get in the bandwagon of profits, after the jump in the stock markets earlier in the week when the first US case was diagnosed now is tug of war for the rights.

Is nothing but a big group of greedy bastards that careless for the needs of people as long as they get to hold the rights for profits.

a reply to: ketsuko

Yes but you also need to remember that this company along with others has been working on a vaccine for over 10 years, if the vaccine was a priority I can only imagine that those tobacco plants would have been available by now, but is all about money, funding, priorities and the ebola rights, that is what is keeping the ZMapp on hold thanks to the US companies greed.

a reply to: marg6043

It hasn't been a priority until recently. Very recently.

a reply to: Osiris1953

Yes, perhaps a priority, but the companies working on the vaccine has been receiving US tax payer dollars since 2003, this things kind of make you go humm.

I guess when people were dying in Africa since 1979, nobody really care at all until now ebola is no only at our doors but is already in the living room.

The irony.

originally posted by: marg6043
I guess when people were dying in Africa since 1979, nobody really care at all until now ebola is no only at our doors but is already in the living room.

That's it in a nutshell. Reactionary behavior at its finest. Americans don't ever care about Africa unless African problems make their way here.

a reply to: Osiris1953

I agree, but I always feel, honestly that the ebola in the US now was intentional, see, vaccines takes millions of dollars to research and develop if no billions, poor countries like Africa will never bring the kind of profit needed to make the vaccine testing and development worth it, but then you get a country like the US infected and hell is profits to be made.

That is why I feel that it was intentional, or at least the lax way that is been taken care off when it comes to the US by our so call government officials is deplorable.

a reply to: marg6043

I don't believe it to be intentional, but I can understand why you believe that. For example, all who wish to travel to the US from west Africa should be isolated for three weeks before they are allowed to travel, and just having one confirmed case here is enough to drive stocks such as Tekmira through the roof. Many people are making a ton of money on that stock. As well as any that have anything to do with the development and manufacture of Hazmat suits, etc. As long as it's contained and the media continues to run with alarmist articles the stocks will continue to rise.

Actual profit from the treatment from the treatment of ebola is not enough to endanger the populace. The real money is in treating but never curing diseases that don't kill quickly such as HIV, cancer, ALS, MD, alzheimers, etc. It's the residual income that really adds up and makes companies wealthy. The stream of money stops when your patients are cured or dead.

a reply to: marg6043

I think the entire outbreak has been manufactured and created from day one. I don't know if this first patient in America was in on the plan or just used but I do believe he was sent here just at the right moment to initialize the trouble.

a reply to: Osiris1953

I know, about the profit making "treatments" sadly ebola is not a disease that can be treated for life, because is different.

Is either a cure or die.

But I can not take for granted that the safety measures that would have help our nation stay safe that should have been enacted by now the president ignored them that is why is not tracking of people flying from areas of contamination, no tracking at all.

a reply to: Yeahkeepwatchingme

Is a game of chance, and opportunity, the safety protocols were never enacted and as usual with lack of proper security measures it was just a matter of time.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

Exactly. I made that point a couple weeks ago that it didn't seem right that these companies have sites like they do. I mean both seem like they've been put together as quickly as possible to address the media and that's all. It's vey suspect that these million dollar companies have pages that rival a grade schoolers site. I just think it adds to the already suspect spread of Ebola.

originally posted by: SpaDe_
a reply to: marg6043

They disappeared alright, right into the hands of the highest bidders I am willing to bet. With this thing landing in the states I am sure that what little they had sold in a hot second at a very premium price behind closed doors. You don't just run out of 1000 doses with no trail or story of where they were "used".

There's never been "thousands" of doses of this drug. I think less than 50 have been made in total, and not all of them of the current "recipe".

The drug is grown on infected tobacco plants which are then harvested and refined. There's no way of speeding up the growing of the plant, hence slow production.

For all of it's ills, tobacco has a huge number of pharmaceutical uses.

a reply to: KingIcarus

Actually as per companies own words they made over a thousand that they specified that should only be used on health care workers in Africa assisting with ebola.

With the promise of more been available, but the company a small company production is on hold due to US pushing for ebola rights with big names behind it.

That is my anger at the whole situation, greed in the way of helping humanity.

CDC Director Tom Frieden: Ebola 'Drug Pipeline Will Be Slow'
Once again, Frieden Gives Contradictory Information, bragging on the US system and warning about the scarcity of ZMapp.

The Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Sunday that the flow of drugs to fight the Ebola outbreak will be slow to reach West Africa and other affected countries. In an interview on NBC’s "Meet the Press," Dr. Tom Frieden said that recent successes in treatment were encouraging, but that a new supply of drugs was not on the horizon.

"The drug pipeline is going to be slow, I'm afraid,” Frieden told NBC’s Chuck Todd. "The most promising drug, ZMapp, there’s no more of it, and it’s hard to make, it takes months to make just a bit." He indicated that agencies were pursuing other avenues to fight the spread of Ebola, including multiple vaccines that are in the trial stage.

As of Sunday, the CDC reports 7,492 cases of Ebola have been documented worldwide, including one confirmed case in Dallas, Texas. Despite fears in the United States, Frieden is confident that the American system can handle the situation. "The bottom line here is we know how to stop it, it’s not going to spread widely in the U.S. for two basic reasons," he said. "We can do infection control in hospitals, and we can do public health interventions that can stop it in its tracks."

"The bottom line here is we know how to stop it, it’s not going to spread widely in the U.S. for two basic reasons," he said. "We can do infection control in hospitals, and we can do public health interventions that can stop it in its tracks."
Source: www.nbcnews.com...

Let's hope you are right, Dr. Freak.