[opensourcepharma] a open source cure for Ebola?

Wed Aug 6 22:44:06 UTC 2014

My advice would be to position it as a crowdsourcing initiative to find
badly needed treatments quickly, among the store of already-approved drugs.
Once such potential treatments have been identified, I would consult with
MSF, DNDi, and other NGOs to identify the next steps.

b

On Wed, Aug 6, 2014 at 6:19 PM, Tomasz Sablinski <tomasz at transparencyls.com>
wrote:

> Dear All,
>
> I am making this suggestion with a bit of trepidation, because it is such
> enormous task, and politically charged topic.
>
> What if we used Transparency Life Sciences platform to engage the crowd to:
> 1/ identify the most suitable candidate(s) for clinical testing, along the
> lines suggested by Bernard via a "reversed" TLS Indication Finder
> 2/ design the simplest and most feasible clinical research protocol using
> TLS Protocol Builder
>
> We know how to curate and make sense of crowd contributions counting
> hundreds. I imagine that the name Ebola would attract thousands. Our survey
> technology can handle such numbers, we just haven't done it yet. This
> effort would require some $$ for IT, etc, and expert(s) from CDC (?), WHO
> (?), etc to "curate" the crowd.
>
> I would see this as joint Open Source Pharma and TLS project. I think it
> fits both organization visions nicely, and the social impact and example to
> th world could be tremendous.
>
> Please let me know what you think, and also understand that I am throwing
> this idea ad hoc, and can not make a firm commitment before we figure out
> details.
>
> Regards,
>
> Tomasz
>
>
> On Wed, Aug 6, 2014 at 5:58 PM, Bernard Munos <bhmunos at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> There are several publications in PLoS and Science TM suggesting that at
>> least half a dozen approved drugs have some degree of efficacy against
>> Ebola (here
>> <http://www.plosone.org/article/fetchObject.action?uri=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0060579&representation=PDF>
>> and here
>> <http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/5/190/190ra79.abstract?sid=ecf907f6-a4ae-4b37-a29d-474963a53068>
>> and here
>> <http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0060579>).
>> However, they have never been tested in humans (hard to find patients
>> outside epidemics). By law, FDA may not disclose which drugs have been
>> submitted for approval. However, this is not a problem because any
>> application has to rely on human trials that must be registered on
>> clinicaltrials.gov. In this case, a quick search
>> <http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results/displayOpt?flds=a&flds=b&flds=f&flds=c&submit_fld_opt=on&cond=Ebola&show_flds=Y>
>> shows 9 trials -- 5 phase 1 vaccine trials sponsored by NIH; 4 phase 1 drug
>> trials sponsored by Sarepta, Tekmira, and NIH. No human trials on
>> repurposed dugs yet, although that could change, with the situation. Since
>> no phase 2 and 3 trials have been registered, no Ebola drug could have been
>> submitted for approval in the US.
>>
>> Sending unapproved drugs to Africa is fraught with ethical concerns about
>> using Africans as guinea pigs. US was correct to treat its own citizens
>> first to avoid that charge. My guess, however, is that it might respond
>> favorably if it were to receive a request from African government(s) for
>> experimental treatments. These governments can also offer repurposed drugs
>> to their patients, if they wish, since they are generic, inexpensive and
>> widely available.
>>
>> The positive development in all that is that the drug developed by Mapp
>> Biopharmaceutical is a monoclonal antibody produced in genetically-modified
>> tobacco plants. This is a new technique that can produce kilo quantities
>> rather cheaply, as opposed to the very expensive gram quantities produced
>> by traditional cell culture. So this Ebola disaster might end up validating
>> a new technique that will upend the economics of monoclonals, by far the
>> most expensive drugs today. The impact on biosimilars, oncology,
>> inflammation, etc, could be huge.
>>
>> b
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Aug 6, 2014 at 4:33 PM, Els Torreele <
>> els.torreele at opensocietyfoundations.org> wrote:
>>
>>>  It’s been fascinating to read some of the commentaries on the fact
>>> that we don’t have a treatment against Ebola virus, eg:
>>>
>>>
>>> http://www.vox.com/2014/8/4/5963751/the-real-cause-of-the-ebola-outbreak-its-not-what-you-think
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> As well as that there seem to be a few experimental treatments around,
>>> but all is shrouded in secrecy
>>>
>>>
>>> http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2014/08/experts-give-new-us-ebola-drug-africans-201485233636516828.html
>>>
>>>
>>> http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/guinea/qa-experimental-treatments.html
>>>
>>> “ The FDA cannot comment on the specifics of ongoing drug development
>>> programs and cannot reveal information that is not otherwise public
>>> concerning submissions covering such programs such as IND applications
>>> submissions.”
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> *Wouldn’t this be a great opportunity **for open source drug R&D,
>>> including crowdsourcing ideas, to speed up the discovery of a desperately
>>> needed new drug. Instead of having a few companies working privately on
>>> their own (with US gov support often), we could imagine opening it all up,
>>> share what we know about the virus, about the potential drug candidates out
>>> there, and then together build upon shared knowledge and progress?*
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Els Torreele, PhD
>>> Director, Access to Essential Medicines Initiative
>>> Public Health Program
>>> Open Society Foundations
>>> 224 West 57th Street I New York, New York 10019
>>> Tel: (+1)-212-548-0351 I M: (+1)-646-262-2053
>>>
>>> els.torreele at opensocietyfoundations.org
>>>
>>> http://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/topics/access-medicines
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> opensourcepharma mailing list
>>> opensourcepharma at lists.okfn.org
>>> https://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/opensourcepharma
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Follow me on Forbes <http://blogs.forbes.com/bernardmunos/> and
>> Fastercures
>> <http://fastercures.tumblr.com/post/62722481036/give-me-your-innovators-yearning-to-breathe-free#!>
>>
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>>
>

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