Mapp to increase ZMapp production for Ebola

Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc. (San Diego, Calif.) is increasing production of its ZMapp Ebola treatment "as quickly as possible" after reports of the compound's efficacy in two Americans infected in Liberia. Mapp said in a ZMab from Defyrus Inc.(Toronto, Ontario). Both products target the Ebola glycoproteins GP1 and GP2. Leaf Biopharmaceutical Inc. -- Mapp's commercialization arm -- had been developing one component, MB-003, with funding from the U.S. Department of Defense and NIH. In July, Leaf received rights to the other component, ZMab, from Defyrus.

Mapp said the ZMapp product has not yet been evaluated in humans. Preclinical work describing the effect of MB-003 on Ebola infection in non-human primates was published in Science Translational Medicine in 2013 and work describing the effect of ZMab was published in the journal in 2012 (see SciBX: Science Business eXchange, July 26, 2012). ...