Fujifilm says tests results on Avigan as Ebola drug by end-2014

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Fujifilm says tests results on Avigan as Ebola drug by end-2014

Tue, 2014-11-11 11:08 — mike kraft

REUTERS Nov. 11, 2014
By Ayai Tomisawa and Reiji Murai

TOKYO--Fujifilm Holdings Corp said it expects its influenza drug Avigan to be approved by international government bodies to treat Ebola after it receives clinical test results as early as the end of the year.

Tablets of Avigan (generic name : Favipiravir), a drug approved as an anti-influenza drug in Japan and developed by drug maker Toyama Chemical Co, a subsidiary of Fujifilm Holdings Co. are displayed during a photo opportunity at Fujifilm's headquarters in Tokyo October 22, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Issei Kato

Fujifilm has been growing its pharmaceutical division through a series of mergers and acquisitions as its photography business wanes. In 2008, it bought Toyama Chemical Co, whose drug Avigan has been drafted to the global fight against Ebola.

Avigan, approved in Japan earlier this year to counter new forms of influenza, has been used in France, Germany, Spain and Norway to treat Ebola patients. Fujifilm had said its Avigan stockpile would be sufficient to treat 20,000 patients, and it has enough ingredients to make tablets to treat 300,000 people.

"So far, four Ebola patients have recovered after being treated with the drug," Fujifilm Chairman and Chief executive Shigetaka Komori told reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday. France and Guinea plan to conduct clinical trials of Avigan 200 mg tablets in Guinea to treat Ebola this month.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/11/us-fujifilm-ebola-idUSKCN0IV0EJ20141111

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