KPB chief describes path to Ebola treatment ZMapp

March 12--It took less than a year for the Ebola drug ZMapp to go from initial development to use, on an emergency basis, in humans, Hugh Haydon, CEO of Kentucky BioProcessing said Wednesday.

That's just one of the tidbits he shared as part of a nearly 20-minute presentation during the Green River Area Development District Board of Directors meeting Wednesday, where he was one of two guest speakers.

The key protein in ZMapp was produced by Mapp BioPharmaceutical in San Diego, but Kentucky BioProcessing, which has conducted contract research and development for Mapp since 2007, was able to construct that protein and infect tobacco plants with it. The tobacco plants were able to produce a quantity of the protein, and KBP targeted those proteins, extracted them from the plant, purified them and formed the compound ZMapp, it was previously reported.

While they had previously worked on treatments for Ebola, Haydon said it was in December 2013 "we identified what we thought would be a significant improvement over what we had worked on prior to then. January 2014 was the first time that we did any development work on what became ZMapp."

In February and March -- and from a lab in Canada -- Haydon said studies of the drug were conducted on monkeys that were infected with Ebola.

"What we saw in that study was that (of the) 20 monkeys that were infected, all 20 survived," he said. "What is significant about that is that the monkeys were allowed to get very sick before they were treated."

Prior to that study, Haydon said a success rate of 20 to 30 percent for an Ebola treatment "would have been considered to be revolutionary."

"At that point, not only we knew, but the Ebola research community knew there was something afoot. You had a product candidate that didn't exist before that showed incredible promise."

In August, ZMapp was used on an emergency basis.

"So you went from, really, the product concept in January to it actually being used in humans in August of 2014," he said. "Eight months. Unprecedented ... There's no record or information that you can find that would suggest you saw a product that has never been tested in humans before actually used to treat humans."

Haydon said in February they received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin the first two phases of clinical studies that will take place in African patients who are ill.

During his nearly 20-minute discussion, Haydon also highlighted the history of KBP, the process of creating and extracting the proteins and why they use the tobacco plant.

Stephanie Salmons

270-691-7302

ssalmons@messenger-inquirer.com

Twitter: @StephReports

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