China has sent thousands of doses of an experimental anti-Ebola drug developed by military to Africa

[kpete]

China has sent thousands of doses of an experimental anti-Ebola drug developed by the Chinese military to Africa. The company manufacturing the drug said it plans to start human clinical trials there soon.

Sihuan Pharmaceutical, the private Chinese company that last week purchased the rights to commercialise jk-05 from a branch of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), said it began manufacturing the drug after it was approved in August as a “special drug for military needs”.

The Chinese military has already sent enough of the drug to treat 10,000 people to west Africa, according to Dr Huo Caixia, associate president of research and development for Sihuan and head of its Beijing Aohe Drug Research Institute. Sihuan, whose founders are former military doctors, is part-owned by Morgan Stanley private equity funds.
The aim is to have the drug on hand in case any of the Chinese medical personnel sent to help out with the Ebola epidemic fall ill and for use in clinical trials which are now being designed, she said. It had not yet been used to treat any African patients, she said, but added that could not be ruled out.


http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/33012186-539a-11e4-929b-00144feab7de.html#axzz3GS9cIJq4

[LostInAnomie]

1. Probably laced with lead and old drywall.

[CBGLuthier]

3. aah, nothing like a little predictable racist xenophobia

Thanks for not disappointing me.

[LostInAnomie]

4. Yeah, because China doesn't have a solid track record...

... of doing that exact thing.

[AverageJoe90]

6. Racist, my ass. nt

[uppityperson]

2. I would like to read this article but must sign up or pay. Aha, Reuters link, here...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/14/us-health-ebola-china-idUSKCN0I30M920141014

.... Chinese military doctor Wang Hongquan, credited with inventing the drug, said on the investors call that JK-05 would first be used to treat Chinese nationals working in Africa with the disease, but treating non-Chinese would require further international approvals.

There are millions of Chinese nationals living in Africa, with around 10,000 in the worst affected countries - Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.

JK-05 could also be used if Ebola spreads to China.

"We can't rule out the possibility that it will spread to Asia. Particularly in China now we have lots of connections with different international cities and many people coming and going across our borders," he said on the call.....

[JimDandy]

5. And we had only enough doses of Zmapp to treat 2 people.

yay us.

Even if it turns out the Chinese military hacked the US for the formula, they ran with it (instead of sitting on it) and produced more than 10,000 doses since August.

[AverageJoe90]

7. Why am I feeling uneasy about this?

No, I don't trust the Chinese government, or Morgan Stanley, or this random Chinese firm.

In any case, this is indeed a truly strange ass world we live in, in which a relatively free country has trouble coming up with a handful of doses, yet in a highly repressive corporatist state, some random corporation most Westerners have never fuckin' heard of somehow manages to make 10,000 of these doses.....two months ago.