Although
there has been no officially approved Ebola vaccine or medicines, doctors and
international agencies have been using experimental drugs on Ebola
patients.
Avigan tablet 200mg, created by Toyama Chemical Co., a
Fujifilm Holdings Corp. subsidiary, is an anti-influenza tablet. Also
called favipiravir, it was approved by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor
and Welfare in March, 2014. In a news report on August 8, 2014, a
Fujifilm spokesman said that the company was in talks with the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration on how to prepare for trials of the drug in treating
Ebola. “Since Ebola and influenza viruses are the same type,
theoretically, the same effects can be expected on Ebola,” said the spokesman. He added, however, that the drug is currently
approved to treat only novel and re-emerging influenza viruses. The Japanese drug (favipiravir) is in the
final stages of human studies in the U.S. as a treatment for flu.
Fujifilm’s drug works in a different way from other anti-influenza drugs such
as Tamiflu, the spokesman said. It inhibits viral gene replication within
infected cells to prevent propagation. The Fujifilm treatment was
discovered by Yousuke Furuta at the Toyama Chemical unit of Tokyo-based
Fujifilm in 1998. It targets polymerase, an enzyme viruses use to replicate
inside the body, to stop the viruses from spreading. The company last
month said it has enough stock for 20,000 Ebola patients.
Avigan was provided as an emergency
measure upon consultations with the Japanese government, in response to the
request by French government agency, French National Agency for Medicines and
Health Products Safety (ANSM), to Fujifilm asking for the drug as a means of
treatment of a French nurse infected with the Ebola virus. The French
nurse was diagnosed as Ebola virus disease while engaging in healthcare work in
Monrovia, Liberia's capital, and was repatriated to France for treatment. ANSM stated that a treatment combining Avigan
and another experimental drug started on September 19. The patient was taking Avigan as of September
25. The latest news at 4:06 am on October 6, 2014 reported that the
French Ebola patient was sent home from the hospital. This made the
Japanese company's shares rose 2.8% to close at 3,499.5 yen. This is the
highest level since July 2008. The French Health Ministry announced that
the French volunteer nurse for Doctors Without Borders in Liberia has recovered
and left the hospital. The Japanese company's spokesman confirmed the
ministry statement, and said the drug was also given to a Uganda Aid worker who
was infected with Ebola in Sierra Leone. The patient was given the drug
on Oct. 4 after having been transferred to a hospital in Frankfurt for
treatment. Fujifilm is working with other governments and agencies for
running more clinical trial of the drug. Fujifilm and Toyama Chemical
will continue to work together with relevant pharmaceutical authorities,
international organizations and infectious disease specialists to explore the
potential of leveraging Avigan for patients with the Ebola virus disease.
The U.S.
National Institute of Health is working on an Ebola vaccine, and other
treatments are in development by Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corp., BioCryst
Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. Two American aid
workers, Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, who had been infected with Ebola, and
treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, received an experimental drug
ZMapp earlier this year. They both have recovered from the virus. This experimental drug developed by San Diego
Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc. but was not yet evaluated for safety in
humans. Doctors say they can’t definitively credit the drug with the
patients’ survival, as some people recover from the infection, and Brantly and
Writebol also received supportive care.
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