Japanese firm behind Ebola drug says tests offer hope

I am not used to see reporting about new drugs as good as this, instead of painting a hyped image of a miracle drug that will swipe the world clear of disease, It seems like a very well written piece about results (some positive and some not so good) of a new use of a drug. As they mentioned it is unlikely that Avigan will become the treatment of choice against Ebola infection, but It has good chances of becoming a first step in finding one, and also increasing your percentage of survival is always good, specially if it is from 40% to 85%.

I will surely follow what further trials show about this, and I hope that the WHO will get some kind of deal with Fujifilm to provide treatment at affordable prices in the countries affected by the outbreak.

Why the hell is Fujifilm making drugs?

Why the hell is Fujifilm making drugs?

Apparently because they are pretty good at it.

There are no drugs on the market to treat Ebola...

There have been a number of cases where patients from western countries (doctors/nurses) have been cured, so now why not just use their blood which contains antibodies able to fight the virus to create plasma that can be used to cure other patients.

onagagamoMar. 03, 2015 - 09:09AM JST Why the hell is Fujifilm making drugs?

It says in the, unusually detailed and thorough article: They started buying up medical related companies about ten years ago because film wasn't a viable business any more.

To put the statistics presented in this article in context the current mortality rate in confirmed cases is about 75% in Guinea.

Onagagamo, ask Kodak. you know, theiconic film giant who filled for went bankrupted because they were too slow to diversify

I don't care if it's Fujifilm or AKB, if someone can find the cure or make the medicine that help those affected, I wish them the best and all the good fortune in the world.

Don't let the company's name deceive you, Fuji Film have a very strong bio-tech base which has very strong connections with the leading edge of both Japan's national research institutes and also a number of leading national universities around the world.

Big pharma!

@Jeremy Wood

so now why not just use their blood which contains antibodies able to fight the virus to create plasma that can be used to cure other patients.

There are several problems for this, you need huge amounts of blood to get the antibodies to treat people, much more if it is an epidemic with a lot of patients, and being human blood it becomes extremely expensive to have it safe, you need to test every single donation against any common pathogen in order to use it safely, for the blood of a health professional you would need to test against any kind of pathogen they had been in contact in the recent months (which is why in many countries its just easier to reject blood donations from health workers).

The best bet is to use monoclonal antibodies, you can cultivate cells that produce those antibodies constantly, can be economical to produce and are easier to check for their protection and safety, still you have to prove that they are effective treating the disease and have no unexpected side effects so the people making them are in a race against the people making the drugs and the people making the vaccines,