A Chinese drug maker with military ties has sent an experimental Ebola drug to Africa for use by Chinese aid workers.
The countries include Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
“Right now, we’re formulating a plan for clinical trials and don’t rule out the possibility of using African patients,” he said.
“Any outbreak of Ebola in Asia or China will speed up the drug’s time table to market,’’ he added.
Zhongxin said they had supplied several thousand doses of the drug, JK-05, to the region and more doses could be sent if needed.
He said if the trial dosage proved 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
Huo Sihuan, Assistant General Manager SPHGL, said pushing the drugs into the market had become imperative because there were over a million Chinese nationals living in Africa.
She said that over 10,000 of them were in countries most affected by Ebola like Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.
Sihuan said the company had 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.
She said all the aid workers to the Ebola infected countries had already taken the drug with them and if a case broke out amongst them it would become handy for use.