Japan To Provide Anti-Influenza Drugs To Stop Ebola

Japan has offered to deliver an experimental serum to combat the Ebola virus, one initially designed to treat influenza. The World Health Organization is working on an approved Ebola treatment with several companies.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters on Monday that Japan would like to offer an anti-influenza drug that has not yet been approved by the World Health Organization to help combat Ebola in West Africa. He said the drug “favipiravir,” developed by a subsidiary of Fujifilm Holdings, could be delivered immediately.

The flu treatment was approved by the Japanese health ministry in March. Fujifilm spokesman Takao Aoki said that the company was in talks with US authorities about starting clinical testing of favipiravir as an Ebola treatment. Aoki said that developers currently had enough stock to treat around 20,000 patients.

The drug works by inhibiting viral gene replication, which, according to Fuijfilm, is a promising feature.

The World Health Organization is racing to field test treatments for Ebola amid the virus’ largest outbreak since its discovery in the 1970s. The UN’s health body said last month that, considering the severity of the outbreak, some shortcuts or deviations from usual testing procedures would be acceptable.

-Reuters

Posted by Kunda on August 26, 2014. Filed under INTERNATIONAL NEWS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry