Experimental Ebola drugs including compounds from Mapp Biopharmaceutical, Sarepta and Tekmira will be tested in affected West African states for the first time in a bid to fast-track trials, the Wellcome Trust said on Tuesday.
Announcing a 3.2 million pound ($5.25 million) grant for the work, the global health charity said the money would ‘enable multiple partners around the world to quickly establish clinical trials at existing Ebola treatment centres’. The outbreak of the virus, one of the most virulent infectious diseases known in humans, has been declared a threat to international peace and security by the UN Security Council and prompted demands for an urgent response.
‘It is a huge challenge to carry out clinical trials under such difficult conditions, but ultimately this is the only way we will ever find out whether any new Ebola treatments actually work,’ said Jeremy Farrar, the Wellcome Trust’s director.
Announcing a 3.2 million pound ($5.25 million) grant for the work, the global health charity said the money would ‘enable multiple partners around the world to quickly establish clinical trials at existing Ebola treatment centres’. The outbreak of the virus, one of the most virulent infectious diseases known in humans, has been declared a threat to international peace and security by the UN Security Council and prompted demands for an urgent response.
‘It is a huge challenge to carry out clinical trials under such difficult conditions, but ultimately this is the only way we will ever find out whether any new Ebola treatments actually work,’ said Jeremy Farrar, the Wellcome Trust’s director.