The Durham-based pharmaceutical company Chimerix has received approval from the Food and Drug Administration to test an antiviral drug in Ebola patients.
The drug, called brincidofovir, has powerful antiviral characteristics and can be used safely through orally administered doses, according to the Chimerix website. The drug works by keeping harmful viruses from replicating. Chimerix is running trials of the drug that started in October and will go through January 2016 with an estimated enrollment of 50 patients, which will determine whether the drug becomes one of the first to be effective at combatting the virus.
“We are developing brincidofovir for a number of life-threatening viruses, and Ebola is one of those,” said Joseph Schepers, executive director of investor relations and corporate communications at Chimerix. “There is a high medical need right now."
Brincidofovir has been tested by Chimerix to fight many other viruses including cytomegalovirus, adenovirus and smallpox. The drug is promising in the fight against Ebola, but its effectiveness cannot be proven until the current studies are concluded, said Coleen Cunningham, chief of Duke’s of Pediatric Infectious Diseases Division and Global Health Division.
"In a test tube, it works against Ebola, but there are no animal or people studies showing if it is effective," Cunningham wrote in an email Monday.
Schepers added that Chimerix currently provides the drug only to physicians and hospitals, rather than to individual patients.
The Chimerix website states that once the FDA approves a request for an emergency Investigational New Drug, such as brincidofovir, Chimerix can immediately send the drug to the administering physician and health center.
Two other medications are also currently being tested for their effectiveness in treating patients with Ebola. ZMapp, a type of antibody drug, has been manufactured and is being given to infected patients, Cunningham said.
"We don’t know for sure if they work, but the product was used to treat a few patients," she wrote. "In one animal study, the product did work."
The TKM-Ebola injection is another type of drug that works similarly to brincidofovir, blocking the genes that help the Ebola virus reproduce and spread, but it is in limited supply, according to the Associated Press.
Cunningham expressed optimism toward the trials of the new drugs, but also pointed out potential challenges including finding the right time to treat the virus.
“The drugs have the potential to be fully effective, either the ones that are ready for testing or some that are further back in the development process," she said. "The obstacle is to identify people who are early enough in the infection to treat."
Once infected individuals have advanced to the point of severe dehydration and/or shock, she said, it becomes less likely that the antiviral medications will have impact.
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