In the hyperactive media culture we’re saturated in, fear is a disease that spreads faster than viruses that can actually kill you. Case in point: Ebola. The current hysteria has gripped the nation coast to coast.

From the local morning shows to late night national news and everything in between, talking heads, pundits and conspiracy theorists are chiming in. Some say to keep on whistling while walking along without a care in the world; for others, the end is nigh and this thing called life will soon look like an episode of The Walking Dead. After all, it is Halloween season as we go to press.

However, there is a real horror show happening and it has nothing to do with zombies, haunted houses or tricks and treats.

As of Oct. 29 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that Ebola has killed nearly 5,000 West African people. The agency says this epidemic is the largest in history, affecting multiple countries in the region where one in two people who get the virus in this epidemic die.

While the outbreak began nearly a year ago in West Africa, it wasn’t until two imported cases—including one death and two locally acquired cases in healthcare workers—were reported in the U.S. just over a month ago, that the rest of the world began to pay attention.

The pharma industry is now rolling up its sleeves. Some experts are predicting the deadly virus will lead to the next billion-dollar blockbuster drug.

Benzinga, a financial media outlet, listed four biotech companies that might benefit from Ebola research, particularly Tekmira Pharmaceuticals, Sarepta Therapeutics, NanoViricides and BioCryst Pharmaceuticals. The companies have succeeded in testing anti-Ebola vaccines on animals and their stocks have risen sharply with the deadly virus outbreak.

The Guardian reported Tekmira shares rose a whopping 180% from mid-July to October, with the sharpest rise coming when the virus landed in the U.S.

Tekmira began limited GMP manufacture of a new RNAi therapeutic specifically targeting the Ebola Guinea variant, which is the viral variant responsible for the Ebola epidemic currently prevalent in West Africa. Supply of the new product will be available in early December 2014.

Johnson & Johnson has made a commitment of as much as $200 million to accelerate and significantly expand the production of an Ebola vaccine program in development at its Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies.

The vaccine regimen combines a Janssen preventative vaccine with a vaccine from Bavarian Nordic, a biotechnology company based in Denmark, which has shown promising results in preclinical studies. It will be tested for safety and immunogenicity in healthy volunteers in Europe, the U.S. and Africa in early January. Janssen is targeting production of more than one million doses of the vaccine regimen in 2015, 250,000 of which may be released for broad application in clinical trials by May 2015.

British multinational GlaxoSmithKline, which has the most advanced vaccine to date and is set to have first doses ready towards the end of the year, said a vaccine to take on Ebola might come too late to curb the current epidemic. By next year when vaccines are readily available, dire warnings predict the epidemic may have spread far beyond West Africa. The United Nations and World Health Organization (WHO) warn that there could soon be more than 10,000 new cases of Ebola per week if the spread of the disease is not curbed quickly.

How this will all play out is unclear. One thing we do know is that the pharma industry has its work cut out and not much time.

Tim Wright, Editor
twright@rodmanmedia.com