Melbourne vaccine maker CSL joins global search for Ebola virus cure

VACCINE maker CSL has been called into the fight against the deadly Ebola virus as the Melbourne-based company joins the global search for a solution.
The specialist blood products company is in discussions with the World Health Organisation about the potential to harvest valuable antibodies from survivors of the illness.
CSL chief executive Paul Perreault said with development of a vaccine likely to take at least a year, global health groups were desperately searching for more immediate solutions.
“The areas they are most interesting in is something more short-term,” Mr Perreault said after the group’s annual general meeting in Melbourne yesterday.

A burial team from the Liberian Red Cross prays before collecting the body of an Ebola victim. Picture: Getty

“They are looking to utilise key plasma antibodies to see if they can be given to patients that are currently infected.
“We haven’t been asked to develop a vaccine and developing a vaccine will take time.”
Mr Perreault said even potential near-term solutions were hampered by challenges in the west African regions affected by the deadly outbreak.

The CSL plant at Parkville, Melbourne.

“Logistically, to collect enough samples from patients will take some time,” he said.
“It’s early days and everyone is trying to cope.”
It came as WHO warned the virus could explode to as many as 10,000 new cases per week by early December.
Nearly 4,500 people are reported to have died so far from the virus, with most cases centralised in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The mortality rate is also feared to be higher than first thought, as WHO assistant director-general Dr Bruce Aylward said that investigations indicated only 30 per cent of victims survived.
CSL chairman Professor John Shine told shareholders the blood products maker had become involved in the global battle due to the specialist nature of its work.
“It’s a very important issue and one that will unfortunately take some time,” Prof Shine said.
“We are in dialogue with the World Health Organisation because it’s become apparent that those patients that do recover have antibodies so it should theoretically be possible to use these antibodies.”
He said CSL was one of the few groups in the world with the knowledge and expertise to utilise the valuable samples, but echoed Mr Perreault’s warning that there were difficulties in doing so.
“We are one of the companies that have the capacity to do that, so we are in discussions,” said Prof Shine.
“There are enormous logistical challenges taking samples from people those part of the world, but we are in dialogue and at the moment it’s a question of ‘watch this space’.”