20 Jul 2015

Shares of British Columbia based Tekmira Pharmaceutical (NASDAQ:TKMR) were down 0.40%, after announcing that it will now focus on developing a treatment for hepatitis B while suspending clinical trials of a drug compound to fight the Ebola virus disease previously seen as promising. 

A month ago, the drug company closed enrollment in clinical tests of its TKM-Ebola in Sierra Leone, after a report concluded that the drug had no beneficial effects.

As a result of the suspension, Tekmira will have to re-evaluate its US$140 million contract with the US Defense Department, which considers Ebola as a security threat, to develop the compound.

To better reflect its new research focus on finding a treatment for hepatitis B, Tekmira has changed its [name to] Arbutus Biopharma Corporation, while failing to elaborate on the fate of a drug targeting the Marburg virus, which is similar to Ebola. 

Some analysts have suggested that Tekmira, a small company, may generate more than USD$ 100 million in revenue by 2017 through its Ebola remedy alone.

In April, TKM-Ebola was said to be effective in treating the virus responsible for the recent Ebola epidemic in West Africa, in a test on monkeys. 

The Vancouver based Tekmira was also seen as having a great chance of success because it wanted to develop a drug able to fight Ebola even in patients who has already contracted the disease a week before diagnosis. Ebola symptoms tend to show up days after the infection with the virus occurs, so drugs are needed to stop the developing illness.

Tekmira’s original version of TKM-Ebola targeted Ebola’s replication process by allowing the patient’s immune system to get used to the virus and then destroy it, focusing on the strain that caused the recent West African outbreak.  

Tekmira’s TKM-Ebola trials in Guinea started last March with financial and other support from British NGO Wellcome Trust as well as the Sierra Leone College of Medicine and other government and nongovernment organizations. 

Since 2013, Ebola has caused over 10,000 deaths mainly in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea. The contagion has slowed since the start of 2015 but continues in particular in Guinea, according to World Health Organization report dated April 15.

In 2014, Chimerix developed another experimental treatment, an antiviral called brincidofovir while Mapp Bio, a California biotech, mix a cocktail of three monoclonal antibodies. But, Chimerix scrapped testing of its experimental antiviral in Ebola patients in Liberia in January, saying a decelerating incidence of infections there made it difficult to enroll enough patients. 

The Ebola epidemic has stimulated the biotech sector to work on specialized vaccines. The outbreaks in West Africa have enabled private and government research facilities to measure the effectiveness and safety of the vaccines or serums allow for development with international partners and gain an understanding of the risks and side effects as compared to benefits.

<http://www.proactiveinvestors.com/companies/news/62482/tekmira-pharmaceuticals-gives-up-research-on-ebola-treatment-to-focus-on-hepatitis-b-62482.html>

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