Development of anti Ebola drug jk-05 by Sihuan pharmaceutical and Academy of Military Sciences

The new drug is one of about 15 experimental drugs against Ebola virus, which has been proved effective in cell culture and animal experiments in laboratories around the world The Ebola epidemic has killed nearly 4000 people in West Africa In addition, there are more than 10 kinds of vaccines used to prevent infection, and their safety and efficacy are being evaluated The World Health Organization (who) is working with international partners to rapidly arrange clinical trials of the most promising drugs in the countries with the most severe outbreaks, such as Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, although it is still unknown about the test procedures and which drugs will be tested Zmapp, a mixture of three antibodies developed by MAPP biopharmaceutical in California, has received the most reports so far Its few available doses were used in seven patients in August, including four Western health workers infected in West Africa, but are currently out of stock A spokesperson for Sihuan pharmaceutical made it clear that the company plans to develop jk-05 as a broad-spectrum antiviral drug, which can deal with influenza, yellow fever and other viruses in addition to anti Ebola virus The company said the drug has "huge" market potential, especially in China's fight against the spread of influenza "The two sides will work together to launch the drug into the market and realize industrialization as soon as possible," Che Fengsheng, chairman and CEO of Sihuan pharmaceutical, said in a statement According to the statement, the drug "recently passed the review of experts from the Ministry of health and obtained the approval documents of special drugs for the military", and "provided key technical means for the prevention and control of Ebola epidemic in China" However, the clinical data of the drug can not be found on the website of the State Food and drug administration, which usually publishes clinical trial information The Academy did not comment publicly China is eager to become one of the first countries to develop Ebola treatment drugs, so as to consolidate its relationship with African countries that may be affected by the epidemic, the report said But Chinese medical experts say the lack of public information about the drug means it's difficult to assess its prospects "The news that Sihuan pharmaceutical is commercializing jk-05 may speed up the schedule of putting the drug into use in Africa, but I still don't believe it can be available within six months," said Yang zhanqiu of the Institute of Medical Virology of Wuhan University "There is no living sample of Ebola virus in China to study It is prohibited to import live virus to China for research What Chinese researchers have done is not based on the research of virus in vivo, but to obtain the gene sequence of virus from the public database GenBank, and then make the cloned virus, and then study it, "he said "In general, it takes at least five years for a drug to enter clinical trials and pass registration - even if it's processed through the fast track of CFDA, even if it's only approved in China," said George Baeder, an expert who specializes in the Chinese pharmaceutical market Although efforts to develop the Ebola vaccine have continued outside China, the head of China's centers for disease control said on official radio in August that there are no laboratories needed to develop the vaccine.