China firm eyes quick approval of drug to cure Ebola

This picture taken on Aug 19, 2014 shows quarantine officers inspecting the Alpha Friendship, a bulk carrier registered in Greece that carries ores from the Pepel port in Sierra Leone, one of the Ebola-hit area in Western Africa, as the ship berths in the quarantine anchorage waiting for its entry in the port at Qingdao, in East China's Shandong province. [Photo/Agencies]

SHANGHAI - A Chinese drug maker is seeking fast-track approval for a drug that it says can cure Ebola, as China joins the race to help treat a deadly outbreak of a disease that has spread from Africa to the United States and Europe.

Sihuan Pharmaceutical Holdings Group Ltd has signed a tie-up with Chinese research Academy of Military Medical Sciences (AMMS) last week to help push the drug called JK-05 through the approval process in China and bring it to market. The drug, developed by the academy, is currently approved for emergency military use only.

"We believe that we can file to the Chinese Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) before the end of the year," Sihuan's chairman Che Fengsheng said during an investor call last week.

"They are looking at this very seriously... and we could get on the 'green light' track," he added.

Sihuan's drug is only one contender among a number of experimental cures worldwide to treat Ebola, although if successful it would be a huge boon for China's developing pharmaceutical sector and the country's soft power in Africa, an increasingly important partner for the world's No 2 economy.

The current outbreak, the worst on record of the disease, has killed more than 4,000 people, mostly in West Africa.

Tested on mice

China's Ebola cure bid still lags some way behind US-developed ZMapp and TKM-Ebola, but Sihuan management said the drug has proven effective during animal testing on mice.

The drug, which AMMS has been studying and developing already for five years, is similar to Japanese flu drug favipiravir, developed by Fujifilm Holdings Corp, which has been used effectively to treat patients with Ebola.

ZMapp and TKM-Ebola have been tested on monkeys, which give a closer immune response to that of humans, and have been used to treat human patients with the disease.

JK-05 has not yet undergone clinical trials, but Sihuan management said the firm was actively working towards clinical tests of the drug, which could be shorter than normally required. The drug has also shown promise against diseases such as influenza and yellow fever.

Chinese doctor Wang Hongquan, credited with inventing the drug, said on the investors call that JK-05 would first be used to treat Chinese nationals working in Africa with the disease, but treating non-Chinese would require further international approvals.

There are millions of Chinese nationals living in Africa, with around 10,000 in the worst affected countries - Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

JK-05 could also be used if Ebola spreads to China.

"We can't rule out the possibility that it will spread to Asia. Particularly in China now we have lots of connections with different international cities and many people coming and going across our borders," he said on the call.

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