12th August, 2014
In a bid to curb the Ebola Virus, Liberia will receive an untested experimental drug, ZMapp, to treat people infected with Ebola, the Liberian government says.
United States company that makes the experimental drug said Monday it has sent all its available supplies following a request to the US from Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
The World Health Organization said about 1,013 have died from Ebola in West Africa as medical ethics specialists met in Geneva to explore the use of such new treatments.
US government officials said their role had been to put Liberian officials in contact with Zmapp maker Mapp Biopharmaceutical. The pharmaceutical company said its supply of the drug was exhausted after its supplies were sent to West Africa, AFP said.
The drug was “provided at no cost in all cases,” the company added.
Zmapp has been used in the US on two aid workers who have shown signs of improvement, and a Roman Catholic priest, infected with Ebola in Liberia, who is currently being treated in a hospital in Madrid.
However, the drug has only been tested on monkeys and has not yet been evaluated for safety in humans. The World Health Organization (WHO) will announce the outcome of its emergency meeting on the role of experimental drugs later on Tuesday.
“In responding to the request received this weekend from a West African nation, the available supply of ZMapp is exhausted,” said a statement on the San Diego, California based Mapp Bio Pharmaceutical website.
“Any decision to use ZMapp must be made by the patients’ medical team,” it said, adding that the drug was “provided at no cost in all cases.”
The biomedical collaboration between US and Canadian researchers involves a drug that is manufactured in tobacco leaves that is hard to produce on a large scale.
Mapp Bio Pharmaceutical was founded in 2003. On its website, the company says it is a “novel pharmaceuticals for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, focusing on unmet needs in global health and biodefense.”
The San Diego based firm has only nine-employee, according to ABC.