The fight against the Ebola virus will get $5.7 million to boost production and evaluation of convalescent plasma and similar products, thanks to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The effort will also evaluate drugs, according to a statement by the foundation.
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The Ebola virus is notorious for the severity of its symptoms, which can include internal and external bleeding, and prove fatal for many patients. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), no proven treatment for Ebola has yet to be developed.
In the Gates Foundation study, convalescent plasma donated by Ebola survivors combined with pathogen-inactivation technology may lead to the development of an effective treatment for the hemorrhagic virus, the statement says.
The foundation will provide funding to Clinical Research Management Inc. and a number of private-sector collaborators to study the donated plasma, in accordance with recent WHO guidance. Mobile donation units equipped with Haemonetics’ (Braintree, MA) PCS2 plasma collection systems and the Cerus (Concord, CA) Intercept pathogen-inactivation blood system will collect the donated plasma in Guinea and other affected countries.
Potential donors will be screened for active Ebola virus and other blood-borne diseases. Pathogen inactivation technology will substantially reduce the risk of any transfusion-transmitted infection from blood components, the statement said.
Rather than transfuse whole blood from survivors to patients, the trial will use plasmapheresis, aprocess that uses a device to remove some blood from the donor and save only the plasma, which contains antibodies. The rest of the blood is returned to donors via infusion, which allows them to donate significantly more anti-Ebola antibodies than could be obtained via a whole blood donation, the statement said. Plasmapheresis also allows survivors to donate every two weeks, rather than every three months, which the WHO recommends.
The statement lists the remainder of the trial partners.
The Gates Foundation-funded trial is among the latest med tech-based Ebola-fighting efforts. Universities and private companies are developing devices or pitching existing ones to help halt the spread of Ebola. Pharmaceutical companies are also racing to develop drugs to treat the deadly disease.
In October, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration temporarily approvedan innovative new Ebola test known as FilmArray BioThreat-E, which can produce results in an hour rather than the standard day or two needed for today’s existing methods. The test was developed by bioMérieux (Durham, NC), and was designed to run on the BioFire FilmArray system, a system that is already in place at more than 300 hospitals. .
