Israeli company offers to mass-produce US-patented Ebola drug
Protalix shares jump after TV report claiming its facility is one of few in world with the technology to manufacture antibodies for ZMapp.
Shares in Israeli biotech company Protalix jumped on Sunday following a news report that its technology could be used to develop an Ebola treatment similar to the experimental drug ZMapp, which has shown promising results in recent trials.
Israel's Channel 2 television reported on Saturday that Protalix's facility in northern Israel is one of the only places in the world with the technology to mass produce a medicine like ZMapp, which uses antibodies from tobacco plants.
Protalix stock was up 10 percent to 10.07 shekels in Tel Aviv by early afternoon, having risen as much as 18 percent earlier. The company's chief executive told Reuters that while future collaboration with the manufacturer of ZMapp was possible, it was still purely theoretical.
Ebola awareness poster in Liberia (Photo: AP)
Through last week, the stock had fallen nearly 60 percent since the start of 2013.
ZMapp, made by privately held Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc, based in San Diego, has drawn much attention this summer.
Two American aid workers who contracted Ebola in Liberia recovered after receiving ZMapp, though their physicians do not know if the drug helped. A Liberian doctor with the disease died despite being given the drug, as did a Spanish priest.
Scientists also reported last month that, in a trial, all 18 of a group of lab monkeys infected with the deadly virus recovered after being treated with ZMapp.
In the Channel 2 report, the head scientist at Protalix said the company can genetically engineer tobacco, has production capacity that exceeds its needs, and offered to produce large amounts of the Ebola drug for Mapp Biopharmaceutical in a relatively short time.
Medical crew in Sierra Leone (Photo: AP)
Protalix CEO David Aviezer said on Sunday Protalix's technology produces biological drugs in plant cells and it already has a Federal Drug Administration-approved drug to treat Gaucher disease.
He said the company is trying to use its technique to develop antibodies for different diseases.
Aviezer said that rather than using the entire tobacco plant, which is how ZMapp is produced, Protalix more efficiently uses just the plant cells.
"In theory, we probably could also produce the antibody used for treating Ebola in our plant cell system," he said. "Based on our technology and their technology we believe this can be done."
"We have to receive the DNA sequence of the antibody, which is a proprietary asset. It does not belong to us. We would insert it into our plant cells and then purify the antibody protein that would be made in these cells."
According to the World Health Organization, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has killed more than 2,000 people and infected more than 4,000 since the outbreak began in Guinea in March. The virus kills about half of those who contract it.
