United States’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday approved the use of Brincidofovir as an experimental drug to cure Ebola Virus Disease patients.
Brincidofovir has been considered as most effective drug to fight and cure Ebola virus by one of the pharmaceutical industries, Chimerix, a North
Carolina-based biopharmaceutical company.
Chimerix’s president and CEO, M. Michelle Berrey, who stated this in a press statement released to journalists in Washington, DC, said the drug had been tested by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.
The statement said, “Though it is not expected to win approval for wide public use until late 2016. We are hopeful that Brincidofovir may offer a potential treatment for Ebola Virus Disease during this outbreak.”
Another drug that has been used to treat Ebola-infected patients, TKM-Ebola, has also been permitted for emergency use by FDA.
TKM-Ebola was used on American doctor Kent Brantly, who recovered from the disease after he was treated in an Atlanta hospital last month. The drug, produced by Canadian drug maker, Tekmira, was given a “fast track” designation and is still undergoing clinical trials.
The FDA has been under pressure to speed up its drug approval process, which typically takes years. Agency officials said the current pace of reviewing new drug applications to fight Ebola would take just days, instead of months or years.
Meanwhile, lawmakers have begun to push for additional screening, or even issue a travel ban on flights from countries battling the Ebola virus.
The lawmakers are worried the disease could spread to the U.S. after Thomas Eric Duncan, who flew from Liberia to Dallas on September 20 became the first confirmed patient with Ebola in the country.
The House Homeland Security Committee will also hold a hearing on the Ebola outbreak on Friday at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said the hearing would discuss the “interconnected nature of our world,” where “threats to the homeland are only a flight away.”
President Barack Obama administration officials have argued that it would be impractical to close off flights between the U.S. and countries affected by Ebola, stressing that this could make it harder to move relief supplies and health workers.