Abivax Ebola antiviral gets financing

Bpifrance and Région Occitanie /Pyrénées-Méditerranée agreed to provide the loan. "We are excited about this additional funding from BPI, as this will be a major enabler for our ABX544 Ebola program," said Prof. Hartmut J. Ehrlich, CEO of Abivay. According to Ehrlich, „ABX544 has the potential to address the urgent need for immediate prophylaxis and treatment."

Under the ABX544 programme, Abivax will develop specific polyclonal rabbit antibodies directed against the Ebola virus glycoprotein (GP). The loan will  cover the cost for setting up a production and purification process for GP and for neutralising antibodies vs GP from immunised rabbits, as well as proof of principle studies in vitro and in vivo. 

In contrast to a vaccine that needs some time to generate a protective response, Abivax expects ABX544 to have an immediate effect when administered either as treatment of infected persons or for protection of non-infected persons.

"Given the recent re-emergence of Ebola in Africa, we see an urgent need to develop efficacious products for prophylaxis and treatment of this devastating disease," said Bernard Fanget, VP of Regulatory Affairs, Process Development and Manufacturing at ABIVAX and long-term consultant to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Ebola fatality rates have varied from 25% to 90% in past outbreaks. In mid-May the WHO reported the 4th Ebola death from an outbreak in Kongo. WHO has mobilised technical experts to be deployed on the ground and is ready to bring the rVSV Zebov-GP vaccine to the region, which was successfully tested in Guinea in 2015.