Ebola drug, ZMapp, now unavailable
ZMapp, the experimental medication used to treat Ebola survivors Nancy Writebol and Kent Brantley, is officially unavailable. According to Mapp Biopharmaceutical, the company who manufactures…
There are no more samples of the experimental Ebola drug ZMapp. (Photo by ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images)
ZMapp, the experimental medication used to treat Ebola survivors Nancy Writebol and Kent Brantley, is officially unavailable. According to Mapp Biopharmaceutical, the company who manufactures ZMapp, global supplies have been exhausted, and it takes a month to make even a small batch of 20 to 40 doses.
SEE ALSO: Why are people with Ebola being denied treatment?
This is bad news for Ebola sufferers such as Manuel Garcia Viejo, a 69-year-old Spanish priest who was flown back to Madrid after contracting Ebola in West Africa. Viejo is the second Spanish missionary to contract Ebola. Miguel Pajares, 75, was returned to Spain at the beginning of the epidemic. Pajares was able to receive a ZMapp treatment; however, unlike Writebol and Brantley, the medication was not enough to save him.
The reason ZMapp is not 100 percent successful in patients with Ebola likely has to do with irreversible damage in the body caused by the virus.
Experts indicate that a window of treatment in humans must be established to know when ZMapp is most effective; if someone is administered the medication too late in the infection process, too much trauma has already happened in the body prevent death.
Kent Brantley was the first person to be treated with the experimental drug ZMapp nine days after falling ill. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Unfortunately, samples have been exhausted, despite the latest encouraging tests in primates. A Canadian study on ZMapp found it successfully cured all 18 monkeys afflicted with Ebola after being administered 3-5 days post infection.
“The treatment window in humans needs to be established in a well-controlled trial” that also would explore the correct dose of ZMapp in people,” Erica Ollmann Saphire, a Scripps Research Institute professor, wrote in an email to CBS. “Given its tremendous efficacy in the nonhuman primates, I don’t see how it couldn’t be helpful in people.”
ZMapp is isn’t “approved” for use in humans, but the World Health Organization (WHO) has approved the administration of experimental Ebola treatments due to the serious public health risk. Other medications like ZMapp are also being considered by health professionals in light of the epidemic. Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp. announced this week they have developed an Ebola treatment being called TKM-Ebola. The product has not been tested in West Africa as of yet.
“At this time, supplies [of] TKM-Ebola are limited and a framework to support the use of TKM-Ebola in Africa has not yet been established, the company said in an e-mailed response to questions from The Globe and Mail. However, the company is still [in] discussions with the [World Health Organization], government agencies and NGOs, in various countries on the potential use of TKM-Ebola.
SEE ALSO: Ebola spreads to new country; UN estimates 20,000 people to be affected
Ebola virus has killed more than 1500 people , with thousands more currently infected or hospitalized for the disease. WHO indicates at the peak of the epidemic, an estimated 1.4 million individuals could be infected, especially if control and treatment methods go unchanged.
