Japan Offers Ebola Drug

Japan could allegedly provide the self-developed unapproved drug to help treat Ebola.

Reuters reports with reference to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, who briefed journalists at a recent press conference held August 25, that Japan was ready to cooperate with the World Health Organization (WHO) by offering their solution.

“I am informed that medical professionals could make a request for T-705 in an emergency even before a decision by the WHO. In that case, we would like to respond under certain criteria.”

T-705 is the developmental code for the influenza drug favipiravir. The developers, a subsidiary of Fujifilm Holdings Corp., and the U.S. partner MediVector are currently negotiating with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on the permission to to expand the use of favipiravir to fight Ebola.

Fujifilm spokesman Takao Aoki, explaining the mechanism of drug use, said Ebola and Influenza are same-type viruses adding that theoretically similar effects can be expected on Ebola, ABC News reports. According to the official, the effectiveness of T-705 was confirmed in experiments on mice. The company representative stated that it has favipiravir stock for more than twenty thousand patients.

Meanwhile the figure of people who died from Ebola outbreak in West Africa is gradually approaching 1500.

By the moment there is the only cure associated with treating the deadly virus, and it is a U.S.-developed experimental drug Zmapp which is believed to have saved the lives of 2 Americans infected in Liberia.

The Federal Government had requested the American officials to allow provision of the serum to Nigeria, however the answer was negative. It was confirmed last week by the American Ambassador to Nigeria, James Entwistle, who said the U.S. was not yet in a position to make the unapproved ZMapp available to Nigeria.