A Chinese drugmaker with military ties has sent an experimental Ebola drug to Africa for use by Chinese aid workers and is planning clinical trials there to combat the disease, executives at the firm told reporters yesterday.
Sihuan Pharmaceutical Holdings Group Ltd (四環醫藥控股集團) has supplied several thousand doses of its drug JK-05 to the region, chief operating officer Jia Zhongxin (賈中新) said. More doses could be sent if needed, Jia said.
The Ebola outbreak in west Africa, the worst on record, has killed more than 4,000 people.
“Aid workers have already taken the drug with them, and if a case breaks out [among the aid workers], then the drug may be used,” Sihuan assistant general manager Huo Caixia (霍彩霞) added.
Sihuan, part-owned by US investment bank Morgan Stanley, is hoping to get the drug fast-tracked for civilian use in China.
It has signed an agreement with the Academy of Military Medical Sciences (AMMS), a research unit, to seek approval for the drug’s use in China and push it to market.
The drug, approved in China for emergency military use only, was initially developed by AMMS.
If it proves to be an effective cure, it would be a big prize for China’s medical sector and a boost to China’s soft power in Africa, an increasingly important partner for the world’s second-biggest economy.
Sihuan says it is China’s third-largest prescription drugmaker. It was originally a military scientific unit, which was spun off into its current form in 2001.
The company is preparing for clinical trials in Africa and could test the drug on African Ebola patients, Huo said. No Chinese nationals have been infected.
“Right now, we’re formulating a plan for clinical trials, and don’t rule out the possibility of using African patients,” she said, adding that any outbreak of Ebola in Asia or China would speed up the drug’s timetable to market.
There are about a million Chinese nationals living in Africa, with some 10,000 in the countries most affected by Ebola, which are Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.
China’s military has also given Sihuan the green light to produce emergency supplies of the drug.
JK-05 has not been used on humans, although Sihuan says it has proven effective in tests on mice.
Its development lags some way behind US-developed ZMapp and TKM-Ebola, which have been tested on monkeys and used on Ebola patients.
However, analysts said the drug’s similarities to Japanese influenza drug Favipiravir is an encouraging sign.
Japanese firm Fujifilm Holdings Corp last week said the French and Guinean governments were considering clinical trials of Favipiravir, developed by group firm Toyama Chemical Co, to treat patients with Ebola.
Sihuan’s Hong Kong-listed shares were up 4.5 percent at 2:30pm yesterday, far outpacing the wider Hang Seng Index which was down 0.7 percent.
The firm’s shares are up more than 80 percent this year compared with the benchmark index which is broadly flat.
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