Published 8:03 a.m. CT Sept. 4, 2015
Leaders from Sioux Falls-based SAB Biotherapeutics are traveling to Saudi Arabia next week for talks with the Saudi government that might lead to a clinical trial related to the country’s outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS.
CEO Eddie Sullivan and regulatory affairs director Jerry Pommer will spend a week in the country along with representatives from the National Institute of Health and the World Health Organization.
“What they’ve found is that MERS is sort of endemic in the camel population in the Arabian peninsula, and it doesn’t cause major problems for the camels, but when it’s transmitted to humans it causes a disease that is 35 to 50 percent fatal and there is no treatment,” Sullivan said.
The hospital where his group is visiting had an outbreak that caused some of its workers to contract the disease from patients. They ended up closing their emergency room to try to stop the disease from spreading.
“So that has become a very, very serious problem, and we have essentially had these antibodies read to go since last October, but of course there’s a lot of issues getting the approvals necessary,” Sullivan said.
Performing international clinical studies involving a biological product would be a first for a local biotech company, he added.
SAB also continues to work on treatment for the Ebola virus, Sullivan said.
“Although that’s out of the news there are still issues around the world with Ebola and we are working on studies that have shown our Ebola product is as good or better than anything out there as well,” he said.
The Sioux Falls company uses genetically engineered cattle to produce human antibodies.
Early this year the Sioux Falls Development Foundation announced it made a $3 million investment in the business. Since then SAB has secured more investors and continues to look nationally and internationally for additional investment, Sullivan said.
