Posts Tagged: "ebola virus"

It is tough to overstate the connection between the development of vaccines and public health, however. Since the use of vaccinations was first introduced by English physician Edward Jenner in 1798, many devastating diseases have either been eradicated or targeted for elimination, including smallpox, measles, rubella and mumps. The prevention of a wide spectrum of diseases by administering biological preparations of microorganisms meant to increase an immune response has been revolutionary for public health simply by reducing the costs incurred when treating diseases and caring for patients. It has been revolutionary in human terms by the number of lives saved, and lives significantly altered for the better. But the costs and time horizon are very real, as is the irrational vaccine fear that prevents many parents from immunizing their children.

We saw in our coverage of Eli Lilly’s patent applications a number of recently developed medications for the management of conditions like diabetes and inflammatory diseases, but the company is also focused on developing solutions to medical problems which are much more devastating. With the current West African outbreak of Ebola making major news headlines in recent weeks, we were greatly intrigued to see one Eli Lilly invention that could be used to treat Ebola and other major viral infections, like HIV. U.S. Patent No. 8796423, titled Anti-TSG101 Antibodies and Their Uses for Treatment of Viral Infections, protects a method of inducing the expression of antibodies to Tumor Susceptibility Gene 101 (TSG101) within a patient’s body. TSG101, which plays an important role in cell growth, can be inhibited to prevent the budding of HIV or other viral infections.