Mapp Biopharmaceutical is an American

pharmaceutical Medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal product, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy ( pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the ...

company founded in 2003 by Larry Zeitlin and Kevin Whaley. Mapp Biopharmaceutical is based in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

. It is responsible for the research and development of

ZMapp ZMapp is an experimental biopharmaceutical medication comprising three chimeric monoclonal antibodies under development as a treatment for Ebola virus disease. Two of the three components were originally developed at the Public Health Agency ...

, a drug which is still under development and comprises three

humanized Humanized antibodies are antibodies from non-human species whose protein sequences have been modified to increase their similarity to antibody variants produced naturally in humans. The process of "humanization" is usually applied to monoclonal ant ...

monoclonal antibodies A monoclonal antibody (mAb, more rarely called moAb) is an antibody produced from a Lineage (evolution), cell lineage made by cloning a unique white blood cell. All subsequent antibodies derived this way trace back to a unique parent cell. Mon ...

used as a treatment for

Ebola virus disease Ebola, also known as Ebola virus disease (EVD) and Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF), is a viral hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates, caused by ebolaviruses. Symptoms typically start anywhere between two days and three weeks after infe ...

. The drug was first tested in humans during the

2014 West Africa Ebola virus outbreak The 2013–2016 epidemic of Ebola virus disease, centered in West Africa, was the most widespread outbreak of the disease in history. It caused major loss of life and socioeconomic disruption in the region, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sie ...

. The ZMapp drug is a result of the collaboration between Mapp Biopharmaceutical, LeafBio (the commercial arm of Mapp Biopharmaceutical), Defyrus Inc. (

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

), the U.S. government, and the

Public Health Agency of Canada The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC; ) is an agency of the Government of Canada that is responsible for public health, emergency preparedness and response, and infectious and chronic disease control and prevention. History The PHAC was f ...

. The antibody work came out of research projects funded by

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adva ...

more than a decade ago, and years of funding by the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Helen Branswell Helen Branswell is a Canadian infectious diseases and global health reporter at Stat News. Branswell spent fifteen years as a medical reporter at The Canadian Press, where she led coverage of the Ebola, Zika, SARS and swine flu pandemics. She j ...

for The Canadian Press. Aug. 5, 201
Experimental Ebola drug based on research discoveries from Canada's national lab
/ref> ZMapp is manufactured in the tobacco plant ''

Nicotiana benthamiana ''Nicotiana benthamiana'', colloquially known as benth or benthi, is a species of ''Nicotiana'' indigenous to Australia. It is a close relative of tobacco. A synonym for this species is ''Nicotiana suaveolens'' var. ''cordifolia'', a descripti ...

'' in the

bioproduction Biomanufacturing (or bioproduction) is a type of manufacturing or biotechnology that utilizes biological systems to produce commercially important biomaterial, biomaterials and biomolecule, biomolecules for use in pharmaceutical drug, medicines, foo ...

process known as "

pharming Pharming is a cyberattack intended to redirect a website's traffic to another, fake site by installing a malicious program on the victim's computer in order to gain access to it. Pharming can be conducted either by changing the hosts file on a vi ...

" by Kentucky BioProcessing, a subsidiary of

Reynolds American Reynolds American, Inc. is an American tobacco company which is a subsidiary of British American Tobacco and is the second-largest tobacco company in the United States. Its holdings include R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, American Snuff Compan ...

References

{{reflist

External links

Website of Mapp BiopharmaceuticalLongtime vision leads to Ebola serum
(Interview with Larry Zeitlin, August 6, 2014) Companies based in San Diego Health care companies based in California Pharmaceutical companies of the United States