Texas Ebola Patient Now Getting Experimental Drug

Will Montgomery(DALLAS) — The Ebola patient in isolation at a Texas hospital has begun treatment with an experimental drug that was approved by the federal government Monday for experimental use, the hospital said.

Thomas Eric Duncan, who is being treated at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital after being the first person diagnosed with Ebola within the United States, is listed in critical condition but is believed to be stable.

“He is now receiving an investigational medication, brincidofovir, for Ebola Virus Disease,” hospital spokeswoman Candace White said in a tweet.

The announcement that he is now being treated with an experimental anti-viral medication called brincidofovir comes the same day that the Food and Drug Administration approved its use in experimental cases.

Brincidofovir is produced by Chimerix, a Durham, North Carolina-based company and was approved through an Emergency Investigational New Drug Applications program by the FDA.

“Based on in vitro data from work conducted by the CDC and the National Institutes of Health, suggesting brincidofovir’s activity against Ebola, we are hopeful that brincidofovir may offer a potential treatment for Ebola Virus Disease during this outbreak,” M. Michelle Berrey, the president and CEO of Chimerix, said in a statement released Monday.

Duncan may not be the only person to receive the experimentation medication. The company reports that they are “working closely with the FDA to finalize a clinical trial protocol,” according to the release.

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