The Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, Monday announced that the country has applied for the Japanese drug for the treatment of Ebola Virus Disease.
The drug – Favipiravir – was developed by a subsidiary of Fujifilm Holdings and could be delivered immediately.
The flu treatment was approved by the Japanese health ministry in March. Fujifilm spokesman Takao Aoki said the company was in talks with United States authorities about starting clinical testing of Favipiravir for Ebola treatment.
Aoki had said that developers currently had enough stock to treat around 20,000 patients.
Apart from the Japanese drug, Chukwu said the country was also applying for the TKM-Ebola drug alongside two other vaccines which has been identified by the Treatment Research Group.
The minister, who spoke at the opening of the 2nd Emergency National Council on Health meeting on Ebola Virus Disease outbreak in Nigeria said, “the Treatment Research Group (TRG) has been working hard to identify experimental drugs like Zmapp, and also make recommendations to government on further research on these drugs as well as vaccines for EVD treatment and prevention.
“Following the TRG’s recommendation and in consultation with NAFDAC and NHREC, Nigeria has indicated interest to participate in the clinical trials for two candidate EVD vaccines and are considering a third that may be added to the list. We have also applied for experimental drugs such as TKM-Ebola.
“The TRG has submitted a detailed profile and brief on the oral antiviral agent which the Japanese Government has offered to make available to affected countries through the World Health Organization. We are now considering the profile and brief to enable us reach a final decision on making it available to our patients.
“Our initial knowledge of the agent is that it has been shown to have strong antiviral activity against the influenza virus following phases I and II human trails, it is now going through phase III clinical trials. It is shown to have strong antiviral property against Ebola virus in vitro and in vivo. The fact that it is considered safe, having passed through phase I and II clinical trials makes it a good drug for use in emergency situation as the EVD.”
Source: The Nation
