Experimental MERS treatment well tolerated in Phase 1 trial

National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists recently conducted a small clinical trial at the NIH Clinical Center of an experimental treatment for Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus infection in which the treatment was well tolerated by healthy volunteers.

SAB Biotherapeutics of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, developed the treatment, SAB-301, from cattle plasma. The “transchromosomic cattle” used have slightly altered genes that enable them to produce fully human antibodies instead of cow antibodies against killed microbes with which they have been vaccinated.

In the study, conducted by NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, 28 healthy volunteers were treated with SAB-301 and 10 received a placebo. The researchers assessed six groups of volunteers given different intravenous doses over 90 days. Complaints among the treatment and placebo groups, such as common cold symptoms and headache, were similar and generally mild.

The researchers have said that they may also be able to use transchromosomic cattle to rapidly produce human antibodies against other human pathogens, in as few as three months.

The first confirmed case of MERS was reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012. The MERS coronavirus has since spread to 27 countries and sickened approximately 2,000 people, of whom about 35 percent have died, according to the World Health Organization. There are no licensed treatments for MERS.