Big Pharma

I have read a lot of posts bad mouthing Big Pharma, how about reading a good side. A lot of lives will be saved.


RESEARCH
NEWS
EDITORIALS
IBD UNIVERSITY
IBD TV
eIBD
LEADERBOARD
STORY

Ebola And The Miracle Of Pharma


Posted 08/05/2014 07:00 PM ET

Innovation: A small U.S. drugmaker has found the cure for Ebola and may develop a vaccine for the lethal disease, saving potentially millions of Africans. What do Pharma haters have to say now?

San Diego-based Mapp Biopharmaceutical already has saved the lives of two American Good Samaritan doctors infected with Ebola. It did so with an experimental drug the FDA temporarily OK'd only out of fear the African epidemic, which has claimed almost 900 lives, was spreading.

Mapp has been working on the antidote for a decade, along with cures for Marsburg, Risin and other deadly infectious diseases and toxins that could be weaponized by terrorists and used against our troops or civilians at home.

All that time, while heroically toiling in their lab, Mapp CEO Larry Zeitlin and his eight employees had to listen to naysayers on the left demonizing the "greedy" drug industry for "putting profits before the sick."

They had to hear Democrats lumping drugmakers in with "evil" tobacco producers and big oil "polluters." They took flack about high drug prices, dangerous side effects, manipulative marketing and drug overuse.

But they kept at it, and in 2012 they and their partners achieved a major breakthrough on the Ebola front.

For the first time, all of the infected monkeys in their experiment survived after getting, within one hour of infection, a "cocktail" of antibodies, which had been engineered in a lab to bind to and inactivate the virus, mimicking the human immune system's natural response to fighting off foreign invaders. Two-thirds of the animals were protected even when the treatment — known as MB-003 — was administered 48 hours after infection.

Even though the cure was effectively "humanized," the FDA did not approve the drug for human trials.

Then last August, Mapp conducted another study and found that the antibody mix worked in 43% of the cases even after waiting five days to treat infected primates.

All the animals in the control group that did not get the drug died. The results were incredibly promising because the Ebola virus replicates quickly to very high levels, overwhelming the host's ability to fight off infections. Causing hemorrhagic fever, it has a fatality rate as high as 90%. Yet almost half the victims still recovered.

Even more amazing: no side effects of the antibodies were observed in the surviving animals.

Phase 1 trials were begun at the Pentagon's urging, but in January the FDA stepped in and halted the trial, asking for more information.

Hopefully now, following a larger safety study in humans, the administration will license the drug for sale — and widespread use in Africa. A vaccine, which now looks promising, could be used in biodefense.

The success of this Ebola miracle drug hopefully will for once take Big Pharma out of Washington's cross hairs, while teaching the FDA to regulate with a lighter hand.

Thanks to a life-saving drug invented and made by private industry, Ebola will no longer have the same terrifying hold over us.


Read More At Investor's Business Daily: [news.investors.com]
Follow us: @IBDinvestors on Twitter | InvestorsBusinessDaily on Facebook

The "miracle" drug was tobacco. Processed, of course - can't have people taking up the evil habit of smoking, eh?
Pineapple juice also helps.
500 grams/day of ascorbic acid cures it too - there's a good explanation of the microbiological reason why in curezone.com. Yes, that's more than a pound a day.

Tobacco and Smoking TRUTH, Health Benefits and a Treatment for Ebola.
Looks like all the negative effects from smoking come from the chemicals they put in them.
Carpet glue being one of the latest, for fire prevention.


[www.youtube.com]