In a clinical trial in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), two experimental drugs for Ebola have reported survival rates of almost 90% bringing researchers closer to finding a cure for the deadly Ebola hemorrhagic fever. Doctors will be able to offer the two experimental drugs – an antibody cocktail called REGN-EB3 developed by Regeneron and a monoclonal antibody called mAb114 – to all patients infected with Ebola in DRC. Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale in DRC reported that of the patients who were brought into treatment centres with low levels of virus in their blood, 94% who got REGN-EB3 and 89% on mAb114 survived. REGN-EB3 is a cocktail of three Ebola antibodies, while mAb114 is a single antibody developed by scientists at National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
A trial of four potential treatments are being conducted during Ebola outbreak now entering its second year in DRC. According to U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the drugs showed “clearly better” results. The other two treatments which were also on trial were– ZMapp, made by Mapp Biopharmaceutical, and Remdesivir, made by Gilead Sciences. It is reported that these trial drugs will be now dropped. According to reports, 49% of the patients on ZMapp and 53% on Remdesivir died while, 29% of the patients on REGN-EB3 and 34% on mAb114 died. The results meant that “from now on, we will no longer say that Ebola is incurable.” said Jean-Jacques Muyembe, director general of Congo’s Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale in DRC, who co-led the trial. The two promising drugs are made from Ebola antibodies – a protein produced by the immune system to defend against infection. The Congo treatment trial that began in November 2018 was conducted by an international research group and coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Almost 1800 people have perished in the Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo since August 2018. Efforts to control were hampered by militia violence and local resistance to external help. West Africa was hit by a devastating Ebola outbreak from 2013 to 2016, the world’s largest outbreak raging through Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone and killing more than 11,300 people.
