A local Liberian artist paints a mural forming part of the country's fight against the deadly Ebola virus by education in the city of Monrovia, Liberia, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014.ABBAS DULLEH/The Associated Press
The battle against Ebola, the deadly virus that has ravaged much of West Africa since March, is being fought by medical professionals in some of the poorest nations of the world. But the longer-term solution could very well come from a three-person R&D shop in Toronto called Defyrus Inc., shorthand for "defying viruses." A private life-sciences biodefence company, it rocketed to international attention this summer as the death toll from Ebola climbed to levels that horrified developed nations, motivating them to take action with experimental treatments.
Defyrus held out one of the biggest hopes. Its ZMAb technology was combined with a similar treatment developed by San Diego-based Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc., to create a cocktail known as ZMapp. The problem: Quantities were limited and the drug had not been used on humans before health authorities gave extraordinary clearance for its use on two Americans stricken with the virus in West Africa. "What we've seen so far gives us tremendous encouragement with regard to the ultimate usefulness of this drug and why it has been embraced globally," says Jeffrey Turner, president and CEO of Defyrus. (A third patient treated with ZMapp died in late August.)
The discovery certainly marks a big step forward for Defyrus, which was founded in 2008 with $4.2-million in financing from Kingston-based Tancho Innovation Capital Inc., plus additional funding from governments in the United States, Canada and Singapore. With a focus on infectious diseases, the company sources intellectual property from governments and universities, develops and expands it into something more promising, and then strikes agreements with partners. "We like to get in, add value and then license it to people who can do the clinical development and manufacturing," says Turner, who has a PhD in molecular biology.
Defyrus is also developing a drug called DEF201, together with Montreal-based H&P Labs Inc. The nasal spray is designed to treat a variety of viral diseases, including Lassa and Yellow fevers, by stimulating the patient's immunity with a single application. Given the devastating scale of this year's Ebola outbreak, these diseases are becoming harder to ignore.
David Berman