Florida Trend | Florida's Business Authority

Ridgeback Biotherapeutics treatment to cure Ebola

A Win Against Ebola

An experimental treatment produced by Miami-based Ridgeback Biotherapeutics is helping turn Ebola into a treatable disease. The treatment, an antibody that prevents the virus from continuing to infect cells, is called mAb114. Ridgeback, a small company founded by Wendy Holman and funded by the Holman family, licensed the antibody from the National Institutes of Health in 2018. It is focusing on FDA approval and producing an Ebola treatment on a large scale.

The treatment was one of four investigated in a random, controlled study in the Democratic Republic of Congo — part of an emergency response to an ongoing outbreak in that nation. Ridgeback’s treatment cured 89% of newly infected patients and 66% of all patients who received it; officials believe that about 70% of untreated patients in the outbreak died. Another treatment, made by New York-based Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, showed slightly better survival rates.

The two treatments were considered such a success that in August the agency monitoring the study halted it after eight months. Now, all new patients in the country receive Ridgeback’s or Regeneron’s treatment.

EDUCATION/RESEARCH

  • As it looks for a permanent replacement for retired President Eduardo J. Padrón, Miami Dade College named Rolando Montoya, who retired as the college’s provost in 2016 and is a former trustee, as interim president.
  • Florida Keys Community College changed its name to College of the Florida Keys and launched bachelor’s degrees in nursing, hospitality, and marine resource management and conservation. It is also building a facility in Key Largo with a $16-million federal grant.

ENTERTAINMENT AND SPORTS

  • NBC Universal Telemundo Enterprises acquired Argentina-based production company Underground Productions, which is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Miami-based Telemundo Global Studios.

NON-PROFITS

  • Related Group owner Jorge Perez will open an art center in Miami’s Allapattah neighborhood late this year. The 28,000-sq.-ft. El Espacio will house some of his personal art collection, a residency program for artists and curators, a studio and exhibition space. The Rubell Family Collection will also take up residence in Allapattah by year-end, moving from its current location in the city’s Wynwood neighborhood.

REAL ESTATE

  • Hotel developer Urbanica Management paid $40 million for Miami Beach’s last vacant oceanfront parcel, a one-acre lot next to the Deauville Beach Resort. Urbanica plans to build its fifth Miami Beach hotel on the property.
  • Virginia-based real estate investment trust AvalonBay Communities purchased a new, 314-apartment, 16-building rental community in Hialeah for $90 million. The company changed its name to Avalon Bonterra from Altis Bonterra.

TECHNOLOGY

  • Seattle-based e-commerce marketplace OfferUp will open a Miami office, its first outside Seattle. Former Televisa Chief Technology Officer Rodrigo Violante will lead the office, which will hire about 16 engineers.

TOURISM

  • Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and MSC Cruises USA are being sued over their use of Cuban ports built on land seized from private owners by the Cuban government. Suits were filed against Carnival in May.
  • Three developers purchased Miami Beach’s Richmond Hotel and South Seas Hotel, which together have about 210 rooms, for a total of almost $140 million. The joint venture of SHVO, Bilgili Group and Deutsche Finance purchased the neighboring Raleigh Hotel for $103 million in February. It now owns three acres of beachfront land in the South Beach neighborhood, close to the Miami Beach Convention Center.
  • Carnival hired attorney Peter C. Anderson, a former federal prosecutor and compliance attorney, to fill its new position of chief ethics & compliance officer.

 

Read more in Florida Trend's November issue.

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