The Ebola drug maker, ZMapp Biopharmaceutical, has announced that its supply of the experimental drug developed to treat the Ebola Virus Disease has been exhausted.
The company said this on Tuesday in a short statement made available on its website.
It said that it had offered its drugs to various medical teams free of charge.
The company’s statement read in part, “The available supply of ZMapp™ has been exhausted.”
“We have complied with every request for ZMapp™ that had the necessary legal/regulatory authorisation. It is the requestors’ decision whether they wish to make public their request, acquisition, or use of the experimental drug.
“Any decision to use ZMapp™ must be made by the patients’ medical team. Drug has been provided at no cost in all cases.
“It is our understanding that all patients offered treatment, treated, or expected to be treated were or are highly capable of providing informed consent for the use of an experimental drug not yet evaluated for safety in animals or people.”
The Ebola drug was given to two Americans and a Spanish priest infected in two West African countries.
Countries including Nigeria and Liberia had requested for the drug, called ZMapp. [eap_ad_2] According to the company, the ZMapp was first identified as “a drug candidate in January 2014 and has not yet been evaluated for safety in humans”. As such, it said very small supply of the drug was available.
It said further that any decision to use “an experimental drug in a patient would be a decision made by the treating physician under the regulatory guidelines of the United States’ Food and Drug Administration.
The Ebola drug-making company however promised that it would work on increasing supply as soon as possible.
It said, “ZMapp and its partners are cooperating with appropriate government agencies to increase production as quickly as possible.”
Meanwhile, a panel of experts was convened on Monday by the World Health Organisation to consider and assess the “ethical implications for clinical decision-making of the potential use of unregistered interventions,”,saying that it is ethical to use experimental Ebola drugs.
They reached a consensus that “in the circumstances of this outbreak, it is ethical to offer unproven interventions with as of yet unknown efficacy and adverse effects” as potential treatment or prevention.[eap_ad_3]
