Protalix Shares Jump on Report of Ebola Drug Technology

Shares in Israeli biotech company Protalix jumped on Sunday following a news report that its technology could be used to develop an Ebola treatment similar to the experimental drug ZMapp, which has shown promising results in recent trials.

Israeli media reported that Protalix’s facility in northern Israel is one of the only places in the world with the technology to mass produce a medicine like ZMapp, which uses antibodies from tobacco plants.

Protalix stock was up 10 percent to 10.07 shekels in Tel Aviv by early afternoon, having risen as much as 18 percent earlier. The firm’s chief executive told Reuters that while future collaboration with the maker of ZMapp was possible, it was still theoretical.

Through last week, the stock had fallen nearly 60 percent since the start of 2013.

ZMapp, made by privately held Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc, based in San Diego, has drawn much attention this summer.

Two American aid workers who contracted Ebola in Liberia recovered after receiving ZMapp, though their physicians do not know if the drug helped. A Liberian doctor with the disease died despite being given the drug, as did a Spanish priest.

Scientists also reported last month that, in a trial, all 18 of a group of lab monkeys infected with the deadly virus recovered after being treated with ZMapp.

The head scientist at Protalix said the company can genetically engineer tobacco, has production capacity that exceeds its needs, and offered to produce large amounts of the Ebola drug for Mapp Biopharmaceutical in a relatively short time.

Protalix CEO David Aviezer said on Sunday that rather than using the entire tobacco plant, which is how ZMapp is produced, Protalix more efficiently uses just the plant cells.

This article appeared in print on page 7 of the September 8th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.