SAB Biotherapeutics announces Phase 1 Clinical trial results for anti-MERS immunotherapy

Clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, SAB Biotherapeutics declared its phase 1 Clinical Trial results for treating MERS, a study that was undertaken by National Institutes of Health.

MERS is an infectious, hazardous and at times fatal respiratory illness caused by a virus namely MERS coronavirus and has no sanctioned methods of cure presently after having been detected for the first time in Saudi Arabia in 2012, since then the illness has spread to 27 countries afflicting more than 2,000 people leading to a fatality rate of 40% according to the WHO.

John H. Beigel, M.D., a medical affairs scientist affiliated with Leidos Biomedical Research said “SAB-301–an experimental treatment for MERS developed from cattle plasma–was safe, well tolerated by healthy volunteers and had the same half-life as human-derived antibodies.”

Plasma collected from recovered patients has been a preferred and effective source of antibodies to combat the pathogens associated with recent global health concerns involving influenza, MERS, SARS and Ebola. SAB’s novel DiversitAb™ platform produces humongous  amounts of targeted human polyclonal antibodies, leveraging transchromosomic cattle (Tc Bovine™) that have been genetically designed to produce human antibodies (immunoglobulin G) rather than bovine in response to an antigen. In the study, 28 volunteers were treated with SAB-301 and other 10 with a placebo. Six groups of volunteers received different intravenous doses and were assessed six times over 90 days. Complaints were common among the treatment and placebo group including mild headache and cold symptoms. With the trials in healthy candidates complete, Phase II trials are slated to review the potency and dosing in patients suffering with MERS in countries that witness the disease in large numbers.