Ansuvimab was sent along with other therapeutic agents to the outbreak sites. However, the outbreak came to a conclusion before any therapeutic agents were given to patients.Approximately one month following the conclusion of the Équateur province outbreak, a distinct outbreak was noted in Kivu in the DRC (2018–20 Kivu Ebola outbreak). Once again, ansuvimab received approval for compassionate use by WHO MEURI and DRC ethic boards and has been given to many patients under these protocols. In November 2018, the Pamoja Tulinde Maisha (PALM [together save lives]) open-label randomized clinical control trial was begun at multiple treatment units testing ansuvimab, atoltivimab/maftivimab/odesivimab (REGN-EB3) and remdesivir to ZMapp. Despite the difficulty of running a clinical trial in a conflict zone, investigators have enrolled 681 patients towards their goal of 725. An interim analysis by the Data Safety and Monitoring Board (DSMB) of the first 499 patient found that ansuvimab and REGN-EB3 were superior to the comparator ZMapp. Overall mortality of patients in the ZMapp and remdesivir groups were 49% and 53% compared to 34% and 29% for ansuvimab and REGN-EB3. When looking at patients who arrived early after disease symptoms appeared, survival was 89% for ansuvimab and 94% for REGN-EB3. While the study was not powered to determine whether there is any difference between REGN-EB3 and ansuvimab, the survival difference between those two therapies and ZMapp was significant. This led to the DSMB halting the study and PALM investigators dropping the remdesivir and ZMapp arms from the clinical trial.
Ansuvimab is also being evaluated during the 2018 North Kivu Ebola outbreak.Ansuvimab has also shown success with lowering the mortality rate from ~70% to about 34%. In August 2019, Congolese health authorities, the World Health Organization, and the U.S. National Institutes of Health promoted the use of ansuvimab, alongside toltivimab/maftivimab/odesivimab, a similar Regeneron-produced monoclonal antibody treatment, over other treatments yielding higher mortality rates, after ending clinical trials during the outbreak.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved ansuvimab based primarily on evidence from a clinical trial (Trial 1/ NCT NCT03719586) of 342 participants with Zaire ebolavirus infection. The trial enrolled newborn, pediatric and adult participants (including pregnant women) with Zaire ebolavirus infection. All participants received standard, supportive care for the disease. In addition to the standard care, participants were randomly assigned to receive either a one-time dose of ansuvimab or one of the three other types of experimental treatments (including one as the control group). The participants and the health care providers knew which treatment was being given. The trial was conducted at four sites in the Democratic Republic of Congo during an outbreak that began in August 2018. Discovery
A 2016 paper describes the efforts of how ansuvimab was originally developed as part of research efforts led by Dr. Nancy Sullivan at the United States National Institutes of Health Vaccine Research Center and Dr. J. J. Muyembe-Tamfum from the Institut National de Recherche Biomedicale (INRB) in the Democratic Republic of Congo.