Mapp Biopharmaceutical is an American

pharmaceutical A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and re ...

company founded in 2003 by Larry Zeitlin and Kevin Whaley. Mapp Biopharmaceutical is based in

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

. It is responsible for the research and development of

ZMapp ZMapp is an experimental biopharmaceutical drug comprising three chimeric monoclonal antibodies under development as a treatment for Ebola virus disease. Two of the three components were originally developed at the Public Health Agency of Canada ...

, a drug which is still under development and comprises three

humanized Humanized antibodies are antibodies from non-human species whose protein sequences have been modified to increase their similarity to antibody variants produced naturally in humans. The process of "humanization" is usually applied to monoclonal an ...

monoclonal antibodies A monoclonal antibody (mAb, more rarely called moAb) is an antibody produced from a cell Lineage made by cloning a unique white blood cell. All subsequent antibodies derived this way trace back to a unique parent cell. Monoclonal antibodies ca ...

used as a treatment for

Ebola virus disease Ebola, also known as Ebola virus disease (EVD) and Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF), is a viral hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates, caused by ebolaviruses. Symptoms typically start anywhere between two days and three weeks after becom ...

. The drug was first tested in humans during the 2014 West Africa Ebola virus outbreak. The ZMapp drug is a result of the collaboration between Mapp Biopharmaceutical, LeafBio (the commercial arm of Mapp Biopharmaceutical), Defyrus Inc. (

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

), the U.S. government, and the

Public Health Agency of Canada The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC; french: Agence de la santé publique du Canada, ASPC) is an agency of the Government of Canada that is responsible for public health, emergency preparedness and response, and infectious and chronic diseas ...

. The antibody work came out of research projects funded by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) more than a decade ago, and years of funding by the Public Health Agency of Canada. Helen Branswell for The Canadian Press. Aug. 5, 201
Experimental Ebola drug based on research discoveries from Canada's national lab
/ref> ZMapp is manufactured in the tobacco plant ''

Nicotiana benthamiana ''Nicotiana benthamiana'', colloquially known as benth or benthi, is a species of ''Nicotiana'' indigenous to Australia. It is a close relative of tobacco. A synonym for this species is ''Nicotiana suaveolens'' var. ''cordifolia'', a descrip ...

'' in the

bioproduction Bioproduction is the production of biologics-based therapeutic drugs including protein-based therapeutics, vaccines, gene therapies as well as cell therapies; drugs so complex they can only be made in living systems or indeed are a living system ...

process known as "

pharming Pharming is a cyberattack intended to redirect a website's traffic to another, fake site by installing a malicious program on the computer. Pharming can be conducted either by changing the hosts file on a victim's computer or by exploitation of a ...

" by Kentucky BioProcessing, a subsidiary of

Reynolds American Reynolds American, Inc. is an American tobacco company which is a subsidiary of British American Tobacco and is the second-largest tobacco company in the United States. Its holdings include R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, American Snuff Company ...

References

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External links

Website of Mapp BiopharmaceuticalLongtime vision leads to Ebola serum
(Interview with Larry Zeitlin, August 6, 2014) Companies based in San Diego Health care companies based in California Pharmaceutical companies of the United States