Incredible story behind the #Ebola drug "Ebanga" approved today by the FDA. fda.gov/drugs/drug-saf…
In 1995, Congolese Ebola discoverer @MTamfum treated Ebola patients with blood from survivors, despite being told not to by the CDC & WHO. 7 of 8 survived. nature.com/articles/d4158…
In 1995, Congolese Ebola discoverer @MTamfum treated Ebola patients with blood from survivors, despite being told not to by the CDC & WHO. 7 of 8 survived. nature.com/articles/d4158…
The NIH failed to replicate his findings in monkeys, but @MTamfum, "Professor Muyembe", didn't give up. “There should be a truth in here,” Muyembe told me.
He hired one of the survivors in his lab & convinced him to fly to the NIH in 2006, along with his sister & a grad student.
He hired one of the survivors in his lab & convinced him to fly to the NIH in 2006, along with his sister & a grad student.
At the NIH, the student & other researchers isolated the survivors' antibodies. These antibodies became the basis for an experimental drug, mAB114, that @MTamfum pushed to test in the 2019 outbreak. It was HARD to conduct this trial. nature.com/articles/d4158…
Muyembe's drug beat Gilead's Remdesivir & the NIH's ZMapp. nature.com/articles/d4158…. And the final PALM trial results find that of 174 patients who received Ebanga, 35.1% died after 28 days, compared to 49.4% of the 168 patients who received a control.
There are now 2 approved drugs for #Ebola, @Regeneron's Inmazeb & Ebanga, which now belongs to Ridgeback Biotherapeutics.
It will be a massive injustice if DRC isn't granted these drugs, developed & tested thanks to the sweat & blood of their people, in future Ebola outbreaks.
It will be a massive injustice if DRC isn't granted these drugs, developed & tested thanks to the sweat & blood of their people, in future Ebola outbreaks.
ht @JNkengasong @AfricaCDC for sharing the news & credit to @MTamfum in DRC.
For more, please see the story I wrote about the trial for this #Ebola drug, and others, last year. nature.com/articles/d4158…
For more, please see the story I wrote about the trial for this #Ebola drug, and others, last year. nature.com/articles/d4158…
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