China Sends Experimental Ebola Drug to Africa

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 the news agency Reuters.

Sihuan Pharmaceutical Holdings Group said it has supplied several thousand doses of its drug JK-05 to the region, and more doses could be sent if needed. China's military has also given Sihuan the green-light to produce emergency supplies of the drug.

Assistant general manager Huo Caixia said the company is preparing for clinical trials in Africa and could test the drug on Ebola patients there.

The drugmaker, part-owned by U.S. 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.

JK-05 has been approved in China for emergency military use only, but has not been used on humans, although Sihuan says it has proven effective in tests on mice. The drug 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, which claims to be China's third-largest prescription drugmaker, originally was a military scientific unit. It was spun off into its current form in 2001.

China has sent hundreds of aid workers to Africa to help in the fight against the outbreak and more than $35 million in medical aid to the worst affected countries.

The development of JK-05 is said to still lag the US-developed ZMapp and TKM-Ebola, which have been tested on monkeys and used on Ebola patients. However, analysts have said the drug's similarities to Japanese influenza drug Favipiravir is an encouraging sign.

Japan's Fujifilm Holdings Corp recently said the French and Guinean governments were considering clinical trials of Favipiravir, developed by group firm Toyama Chemical Co, to treat patients with Ebola.