WHO seeks to test Thai antibody
WORLD ORGANISATION WANTS TO TEST SIRIRAJ HOSPITAL BREAKTHROUGH ON ACTUAL VIRUS BEFORE CLINICAL TRIALS
The World Health Organisation has made a request to test an antibody developed by Siriraj Hospital for Ebola treatment, according to the head of the facility’s medical faculty.
Clinical Prof Dr Udom Kachintorn, dean of Mahidol University’s Faculty of Medicine, said he received an e-mail from WHO’s head of Ebola research, Dr Martin Friede, asking for the antibody so the organisation could authenticate the achievement and use the treatment.
The medical school at Siriraj Hospital claimed this week that it had successfully developed the antibody for the treatment of the deadly Ebola Haemorrhagic Fever (EHF).
WHO praised the achievement and wanted to use the antibody to combat in the deadly virus, he said.
Ebola has killed more than 3,000 mostly Africans this year.
Udom said the antibody had successfully fought an artificial Ebola virus developed in a lab and WHO wanted to test it on the actual virus before staging clinical trials on animals and humans.
“If it works, this method could shorten the clinical-trial procedure and be developed for EHF treatment in humans,” he said.
Udom said Thailand should have better medical research facilities in order to improve the country’s medical research ability, and at the very least it should have a level-four biosafety laboratory.
Thailand currently had a level-three laboratory, which was not safe enough for research and trails.
Udom said many healthcare personnel and medical experts were infected with the Ebola virus while treating people or working in a lab.
He said Siriraj Hospital had invested Bt12 million in developing a safety system for medical research that gave researchers total protection.
Meanwhile, Prof Dr Wanpen Chaicumpa, who led the research team that developed the antibody, said she was in the process of selecting the five best antibodies among 100 clones and would then forward them to WHO – a process that would take a few weeks.
Wanpen said that despite the organisation’s interest it was important its representatives arranged a formal discussion with Siriraj Hospital, which owned the patent, and the Ministry of Public Heath to ensure the hospital was engaged during the tests.
She said that since the tests would be done in a level-four biosafety laboratory, it would help lessen the time of the procedure, which usually required tests on animals and humans, but it still could take up to a year.
Dr Apichai Mongkol, the Public Health Ministry’s Medical Science Department director-general, said his department had already asked for approval from the ministry to develop a level-four biosafety laboratory.
Apichai said the ministry had not yet considered the request, which would require a Bt57-million budget, due to the political strife earlier this year.
It was expected that the proposal would be considered when new Health Minister Rajata Rajatanavin had the time to look at it in detail.
