Trials of Japanese Drug Encouraging for Ebola Treatment: France

Paris (PNA/Kyodo) — Inserm, the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research, said Thursday that clinical trials of the Japanese anti-influenza drug Avigan Tablet have shown encouraging results for treating Ebola in Guinea.

After being informed of the outcome by the national medical institution, the French president’s office said in a statement the trials of the drug showed a fall in the number of deaths and accelerated recovery of patients, according to French public radio reports.

Avigan, developed by Toyoma Chemical Co., a subsidiary of Fujifilm Holdings Corp., could become the first effective medicine to treat Ebola, which has caused nearly 9,000 deaths mainly in West Africa. (PNA/Kyodo) FFC/PJN