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Posted: **Sun Aug 03, 2014 8:09 am**

"Fast-track the Ebola drug"
U.S. under pressure to give potentially life-saving medication
the green light as experts warn of global pandemic

By Lizzie Parry
DailyMail.co.uk

Health campaigners are today calling for U.S. authorities to speed up their approval of a new drug hoped to be the first cure for the deadly Ebola virus.

There is currently no cure or vaccine for the disease, which has claimed the lives of 672 people in West Africa, since February.

The head of global charity The Wellcome Trust earlier this month called for experimental drugs to be offered to those diagnosed with the virulent illness in West Africa.

Despite the drugs not being fully tested Jeremy Farrar, professor of tropical medicine and director of the trust, said Ebola's spread in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone is 'out of control'.

. . .

Campaigners are calling on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the United States to fast-track their authorisation of the TKM-Ebola drug.

The petition, created on change.org, states: 'One of the most promising is TKM-Ebola manufactured by Tekmira Pharmaceuticals.

'This drug has been shown to be highly effective in killing the virus in primates and Phase 1 clinical trials to assess its safety in humans were started earlier this year.'

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Posted: **Mon Aug 04, 2014 7:27 am**

Former JPS doctor with Ebola
showing signs of improvement

From staff and wire reports

Dr. Kent Brantly shows signs of improvement, and he received a dose of experimental serum before leaving Africa for Atlanta’s Emory University Hospital, where he is being treated for the often deadly Ebola virus, authorities said Sunday.

Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Fox News Sunday that Brantly, a former resident at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, “appears to be improving.”

Samaritan’s Purse, the organization Brantly was serving as a medical missionary for in West Africa, confirmed that Brantly’s condition is improving and said in a statement Sunday evening that “Kent was able to receive a dose of the experimental serum prior to leaving Liberia.”

Emory officials have not commented on the condition of Brantly, a husband and the father of two children, ages 3 and 5.

Brantly’s colleague Nancy Writebol, who is also stricken with the Ebola virus, is expected to be flown from Liberia to Atlanta on Tuesday for treatment at Emory’s infectious disease unit. Brantly, 33, arrived in Atlanta on Saturday.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2014/08/03 ... rylink=cpy

Posted: **Mon Aug 04, 2014 8:00 am**

Here's The Biotech Company
Whose Stock Is Going Crazy
Because Of Ebola

Myles Udland
BusinessInsider.com

A scientist separates blood cells from plasma cells to isolate any Ebola RNA in order to test for the virus at the European Mobile Laboratory in Gueckedou

Shares Tekmira Pharmaceuticals are surging as the recent outbreak of Ebola renews hope that a trial of the company's Ebola treatment will be renewed.

In pre-market trade, Tekmira shares were up more than 10%, a move that follows a more than 11% advance on Friday.

In July, the FDA placed a clinical hold on the company's TKM-Ebola Phase 1 healthy volunteer study.

Over the weekend, a report from Reuters said that the FDA "stands ready" to work with companies developing Ebola treatments.

In its report, Reuters noted that the FDA's hold means Tekmira can't proceed with the trial placed on hold, but doesn't prevent the company from initiating a new study proposal.

And were the company to initiate a new trial in people already infected with Ebola, "the benefit-risk ratio changes completely," an FDA source told Reuters. "Anything that would shift the risk-benefit to a more favorable outcome could potentially allow the authorization of that study," the source told Reuters.

Tekmira's treatment, TKM-Ebola, is currently being developed under a $140 million contract with the Department of Defense's Medical Countermeasure Systems BioDefense Therapeutics Joint Product Management Office.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/tekmira- ... z39QaFLUAA

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