NanoViricides Inc. (NNVC)

[changes_iv]

Compassionate use of drugs, today...

Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed in the United States with Ebola, remains in critical condition, but is now receiving an experimental drug, hospital officials say.

The drug is brincidofovir, a broad-spectrum antiviral that has shown promise against Ebola in test tubes and is now being tested in animals, according to a statement from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, where Duncan is being treated. It has not been tested against Ebola in humans.
...
There are no proven treatments or vaccines for Ebola, but several Ebola patients treated in the USA and elsewhere have received experimental, unproven drugs for compassionate use.
...
Thomas Geisbert, who helped develop TKM-Ebola, said he is surprised that doctors would choose brincidofovir. To his knowledge, there is no evidence that brincidofovir works against Ebola in animals, said Geisbert, a professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

"I've never heard of this drug being used for Ebola before," Geisbert said. "it works in cell culture. That's great. Lots of things work in cell culture against Ebola," he said, but then fail to help animals.

With no proven way to fight Ebola, doctors have to weigh a number of factors when choosing an experimental drug, including its potential to cause side effects in critically ill patients, said Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/06/thomas-eric-duncan-ebola-patient-dallas-hospital/16798391/

Frieden told reporters on Sunday that Duncan was apparently not receiving experimental therapies, in part because there are no more doses of ZMapp, a cocktail of three antibodies.

Asked about TKM-Ebola, the drug that Dr. Rick Sacra received in treatment when he was diagnosed with Ebola, Frieden said it "can be quite difficult for patients to take" and "can actually make someone sicker."

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/10/07/american-journalist-with-ebola-being-treated-with-experimental-drug/

The DOD provided Sarepta $291 million for the development of a cure for Ebola and the Marburg virus, but due to federal budget constraints the funding was pulled back in 2012.

http://www.bidnessetc.com/24021-is-map-biopharma-winning-the-race-to-combat-ebola/

Enter NanoViricides, Inc., a small biotech company that can model/synthesize an anti-viral drug in about 7 weeks.

The Company has now developed novel nanoviricide drug candidates against Ebola that it believes could lead to a successful therapeutic. These drug candidates are designed to mimic the host cell receptor onto which the Ebola virus binds to cause an infection. The site at which the virus binds does not change, in spite of all the mutations a virus undergoes. Thus the Company believes that its drug candidates would continue to work in spite of field mutations in the virus. This is unlike vaccines, antibodies, siRNA, antisense, and several other therapeutic modes which a virus can readily overcome due to mutations it acquires in the field.
...
The current outbreak in Africa has unequivocally demonstrated the need for an effective, broad-spectrum, anti-Ebola therapeutic.
...
NanoViricides, Inc. now has the capability of producing sufficient quantities of an anti-Ebola drug, after it is developed, for combating current and future Ebola epidemics. The highly customizable nanomedicine cGMP capable pilot scale manufacturing facility in Shelton, CT, will be able to supply all of the nanoviricides drug candidates in quantities needed for human clinical trials.

In as early as just a few weeks we should be testing EbolaCide II for efficacy. How long will it take to rescue the animal subjects from the jaws of death? Hours? Can we rescue from death > 90% of animal subjects? If the answer is yes, EbolaCide II should be eligible for compassionate use!

Ebola virus (EBOV) remains one of the most lethal transmissible infections and is responsible for high fatality rates and substantial morbidity during sporadic outbreaks. With increasing human incursions into endemic regions and the reported possibility of airborne transmission, EBOV is a high-priority public health threat for which no preventive or therapeutic options are currently available. Recent studies have demonstrated that cocktails of monoclonal antibodies are effective at preventing morbidity and mortality in nonhuman primates (NHPs) when administered as a post-exposure prophylactic within 1 or 2 days of challenge. To test whether one of these cocktails (MB-003) demonstrates efficacy as a therapeutic (after the onset of symptoms), we challenged NHPs with EBOV and initiated treatment upon confirmation of infection according to a diagnostic protocol for U.S. Food and Drug Administration Emergency Use Authorization and observation of a documented fever. Of the treated animals, 43% survived challenge, whereas both the controls and all historical controls with the same challenge stock succumbed to infection. These results represent successful therapy of EBOV infection in NHPs.

============================================

Several dozen U.S. troops could come into contact with Ebola while testing for the deadly disease in Liberia, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

The highly trained troops will help operate seven mobile labs, where they could be working with the blood of infected patients, Army Gen. David Rodriguez said. The new details on the military’s response to Ebola reveals a riskier operation than previously announced by the White House, surfacing fresh concerns of troops entering high-risk zones.

The U.S. response did not previously involve military members helping to diagnose patients, though Rodriguez maintained that troops will be adequately protected against the disease.

http://thehill.com/policy/defense/220014-pentagon-us-troops-to-have-contact-with-ebola-virus