Remember Ebola? Its predominance in the news has diminished recently, but the need for developing drugs to combat ebolavirus infections is a strong as ever. Brincidofovir is an experimental drug under development by Chimerix (Durham, NC) for combating several viruses, including Ebola. Its activity against Ebola is somewhat unexpected because, unlike other viruses attacked by brincidofovir, Ebola is a single-stranded RNA virus, not a double-stranded DNA virus.
In December 2014, Doctors without Borders began clinical trials on brincidofovir in West Africa. Previously, two out of the three Ebola patients treated with the drug in the United States survived, but whether their survival can be attributed to it is not known.
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