Two Ebola drugs found to add survival rates in a clinical trial
SCIENTISTS were a step closer to an effective treatment for Ebola after two drugs in a clinical trial were found to significantly boost survival rates, the US health authority co-funding the research said on Monday.
The study began last November in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but its current phase has been halted and all future patients switched over to the treatments that have shown positive results, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) said in a statement.
REGN-EB3 a nd mAb114 “a re t he f i r st dr ugs t hat, i n a scient i f ic a l ly sound st udy, have clea rly show n a sig nif ica nt diminution in morta lit y for people wit h Ebola v irus disease,” sa id Ant hony Fauci, director of t he NIH’s Nat iona l Inst it ute of A l lerg y and Infectious Diseases.
Pat ients who were receiv i ng t wo ot her drugs t hat are being discontinued, Zmapp and remdesiv ir, will now have t he option at t he discretion of their treating physician to receive the treatments that have been shown to work.
Fauci explained t hat t he tria l was designed to include 725 people, but was halted by an independent board when it had en rol led 681 people because at t hat poi nt, one of t he d r ugs, R EGN-EB3 by Regeneron, reached a cr it ica l t hreshold in succ e s s, wh i le m Ab114 wa s not f a r behind.
Data has so far been analysed for 499 people from the cohort of 681.
In this group, mortalit y dropped to 29 per cent with REGN-EB3 and with mAb114 it fel l to 34 per cent, sa id Fauci – compared to a rate of between 60 and 67 per cent in the general population when t he disease is not treated by a drug.
The rates for Zmapp and remdesivir were 49 per cent and 53 per cent
respectively.
REGN-EB3, mAb114 and Zmapp are monoclonal antibodies that bind to glycoprotein on the Ebola virus and neutralise its ability to infect other cells.
Fauci added that the final analysis of the data, including the patients not yet processed, would occur in late September or early October, after which the complete results would be submitted for publication in peer-reviewed medical literature.
The NIH, Democratic Republic of Congo hea lt h aut hor it ies a nd t he World Health Organisation hailed the “ex t raord i nar y tea m of i ndiv idua ls who have worked under ex t remely dif f icult conditions to carr y out t his st udy,” as wel l as t he pat ient s a nd t heir fa milies.
Jeremy Farrar, director of Britain’s Wellcome Trust research charity, said the development would “undoubtedly save lives”, adding: “Thanks to this trial, we are starting to understand which treatments to offer to patients in this and future outbreaks.”
More than 1,800 people have died in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo since Ebola broke out there in August last year.
The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals, then spreads among humans through direct contact with the blood or other secretions of infected people or with surfaces contaminated with their fluids, according to the World Health Organisation.
The latest trial demonstrates “you can dramatically diminish the mortality”, said Fauci, “but getting rid of the Ebola virus becomes a [case of] prevention, of how you could prevent this from spreading”.
“The best way to end the outbreak is with a good vaccine, as well as to do good contact tracing, isolation, and then, ultimately, treatment.”
Health authorities are currently investigating several vaccine candidates.