Ebola Treatment: How Big Tobacco and the Military Came Together

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/ebola-treatment-how-big-tobacco-military-came-together-n173311

A tobacco titan and the U.S. military are unlikely partners in a possible Ebola breakthrough — plants purposely infected with Ebola-related proteins that, in turn, helped produce emergency medicine for two Americans who contracted the virus in Africa.

The second of those two Americans, Nancy Writebol, arrived Tuesday at Emory University Hospital following an airlift. She and Dr. Kent Brantly each contracted Ebola while treating patients at a missionary clinic in Liberia. Brantly was admitted earlier to the same Atlanta hospital.

Both are said to be improving since receiving the experimental anti-Ebola drug ZMapp, developed through a unique alliance between the U.S. military, private scientists, and Reynolds American Inc., which is working to remodel the image of Big Tobacco.

ZMapp is composed of three “humanized” mouse monoclonal antibodies — one of which was developed at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) — and manufactured in tobacco plants.