Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) will host the first clinical trials of Ebola treatments in three treatment centres in West Africa, the international medical humanitarian organisation has announced.
The separate trials, which are aimed at quickly finding an effective therapy for the disease that has so far resulted in 5,000 deaths in the current outbreak in the region, will be led by three different research partners.
The French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) will lead a trial using antiviral drug favipiravir in Guéckédou, Guinea; the Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) will lead a trial of convalescent whole blood and plasma therapy at the Donka Ebola centre in Conakry, Guinea; and the University of Oxford will lead, on behalf of the International Severe Acute Respiratory and Emerging Infection Consortium (ISARIC), a Wellcome Trust-funded trial of the antiviral drug brincidofovir at a site yet to be determined.
The World Health Organ-ization (WHO) and health authorities of the affected countries are also taking part in this collaborative effort.
The trials’ protocols are in the final stages of development and are designed with a simple target of 14-day survival and with broad inclusion criteria.
The main principles and designs have been shared with the respective countries’ ethical authorities, with the goal of starting the first trials next month.
Initial results could be available in February.
The two drugs, brincidofovir and favipiravir, were selected from WHO’s shortlist of potential Ebola treatments after review of safety and efficacy profiles, product availability, and ease of administration to patients, MSF said.
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