Japan Willing To Offer Experimental Ebola Drug, Government Says
The Japanese government announced Monday that it may be able to offer an experimental Ebola drug to aid in the current health crisis in West Africa, as long as certain criteria is met.
Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters Monday that Japan is willing to provide the experimental drug favipiravir at the request of the World Health Organization [WHO]. The country added that in certain cases, the drug could even be provided before the WHO officially permitted its distribution.
"I am informed that medical professionals could make a request for T-705 in an emergency even before a decision by the WHO. In that case, we would like to respond under certain criteria," Suga said in a statement. Suga added that only in cases of serious international emergency would his country begin issuing the experimental drug, also known as T-705, before receiving WHO approval.
Several countries in West Africa have declared a national health emergency as the Ebola virus continues to spread, claiming the lives of over 1,400 people primarily in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
The WHO released a statement earlier in August saying that due to the current Ebola emergency, it would be ethical for pharmaceutical companies to distribute experimental drugs.
Marie-Paule Kieny, assistant director-general of WHO, said at a press conference in Switzerland earlier this month that the WHO ethics panel had come to a "unanimous agreement among the experts that in the special circumstances of this Ebola outbreak it is ethical to offer unregistered treatments."
