Ebola patient receives experimental treatment in Dallas hospital

[TexasTowelie]

Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian national who is fighting a severe Ebola infection in Dallas, is getting an experimental treatment, the hospital announced Monday.

The drug is an investigational medication, brincidofovir, for Ebola Virus Disease.

Duncan remains in critical but stable condition, according to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.

Chimerix, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company today announced that brincidofovir has been provided for potential use in patients with Ebola Virus Disease. The company is developing new oral antivirals in areas of high unmet medical need, including Ebola.

Read more: http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/2014/10/ebola-patient-receives-experimental-treatment-in-dallas-hospital.html/

[Electric Monk]

1. So I guess he's not as dead as the Freepers and that Israeli newspaper said he was...

[Agschmid]

2. Yup.

[uppityperson]

3. Good luck to him.

[logosoco]

4. This is good news.

Seems like yesterday there was a story about how they weren't using another drug because it was unavailable but it didn't sound like they were trying anything else. That seemed like a missed chance for learning about how virus's can be knocked out.
I hope this helps and that they learn about what medications can or cannot do!

[Avalux]

7. I heard the family would decide to try something else.

Looks as if they made their decision. I hope it's effective and Duncan improves.

[TBF]

5. They talked about the possibility of a drug from a

Canadian company but it looks like this one is in NC. Freepers may not like if it he lives, but I bet they are investing in Chimerix stock today.

[Dreamer Tatum]

6. Awful fancy treatment for someone turned away for being black and uninsured. nt

[My Pet Goat]

8. I wonder if this drug has better availability...

(or potential to be more quickly available) due to the drug already being under development for treating smallpox?

[My Pet Goat]

9. More on brincidofovir...

Testing on Ebola patients just approved.

"The company’s potent antiviral is being tested on patients who are ill with adenovirus and cytomegalovirus. It is also being studied as a potential antidote to a smallpox outbreak spread accidentally or deliberately by bioterrorists."

http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/10/06/4212004/fda-gives-durham-drug-developer.html?#storylink=cpy

Seems like drug has been under development for quite some time...I just wish there was a way to rapidly ramp-up production.

Update: Interesting, this is the drug that was originally denied to Josh Hardy (who then recovered from a virus after getting approval):

http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/06/health/ebola-drugs-in-the-works/

[Avalux]

10. Brincidofovir is a ramped up version of cidofovir (Vistide), is currently in Phase III drug trials.

It's a DNA polymerase inhibitor, and has been binded to an agent that allows for oral delivery of high intracellular concentrations. It won't kill Ebola, but if it works, will inhibit the virus from using the DNA of cells it infects to replicate. Brincidofovir binds to the same receptor sites that Ebola does, thereby blocking Ebola.

Cidofovir is given intravenously; this version is oral.

[My Pet Goat]

11. Thanks, what is your view on the following information...

"The drug has been in development for “years” and has been used on 900 patients to date, according to the press release. It was being tested in large-scale human trials for the treatment of cytomegalovirus and adenovirus infections, and had received FDA's “fast track” designation for CMV, adenovirus and smallpox when FDA approval came for use of the drug on Ebola patients."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/06/experimental-drug-dallas-ebola-thomas-eric-duncan_n_5941104.html

Do you think the large-scale trials increases the chances the drug is available right now in somewhere near a thousand-dose quantity?

[Avalux]

12. It depends on what the FDA allows Chimerex to do.

The indication for brincidofovir, based upon their studies to date, is for CMV and adenovirus. Chimerex hasn't done clinical studies on Ebola yet, and either have started or are about to start animal studies (pre-clinical).

The FDA will need to consider the Ebola crisis, then give Chimerex the go-ahead to mass produce and by-pass those studies if they decide to do so. So if they do, we won't really know how much to give patients or if it will be effective. Duncan is the first test subject for Ebola, and we'll learn a lot from him.

[Electric Monk]

13. kick (there's a dupe thread just posted)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025628647