The National Institutes of Health has granted a researcher at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology $7.1 million grant to fund further studies of a treatment aimed at fighting smallpox.
Shane Crotty, who developed the antibody treatment, will use the funds to conduct pre-clinical testing of the work he and his research team began three years ago.
The scientists discovered they could isolate a certain antibody that acts as an extremely potent fighter against smallpox by studying blood samples from people who had received the smallpox vaccine.
They then studied their hypothesis using mice.
“We and others have figured out you can actually take an animal that’s been infected, give them the antibodies and it will cure the animal,” Crotty said.
The NIH expressed interest in the work and asked Crotty to further develop the antibody treatment for use in humans.
The research team, led by Crotty, developed human antibodies using genetically engineered mice and gene-cloning techniques.
Unlike the vaccine, the antibody would provide immediate treatment even if the person had already been exposed to smallpox. It could also play a major role in the event of an outbreak among those 36 and younger who haven’t been vaccinated against smallpox.
Although the virus was mostly eradicated in the United States in the early 20th century, government officials have raised new concerns about the possibility of smallpox used as an agent of bioterrorism. Disease experts fear that samples of the smallpox virus may have landed in the hands of terrorists or dangerous countries somewhere along the way.
“It’s nasty stuff, but, since the likelihood that somebody has it is low, nobody’s been willing to vaccinate the whole population,” Crotty said. “So that means we’d really like to have a cure if it were to happen.”
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Reverse Numbing Drug To Launch:
A drug developed by privately-held Novalar Pharmaceuticals Inc. passed FDA muster May 12 and will launch later this year.
The drug, OraVerse, works to reverse the numbing effects of local dental anesthesia for patients as young as 6 years old. According to clinical studies, the drug cut the medium time it took for full sensation to return to the lips by about 75 to 85 minutes, or by more than half.
With more than 300 million anesthetic injections given each year in the United States, Novalar estimates it will reach hundreds of millions of dollars a year. The company said it would sell the drug to dentists for up to $20 an injection, although consumer costs would vary.
“We are fully intending to take this onto market ourselves and to grow into a specialty pharma company in dentistry,” said Donna Janson, president and chief executive of Novalar. “We are (pursuing) market opportunities whether it be an M & A; or an IPO.”
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