The U.S. may deploy an experimental Ebola therapy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in response to a request by the country's minister of health to tackle the worsening outbreak, The Wall Street Journal reported citing a top government official.
The medicine is being tested in an early stage trial launched a week earlier, Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, or NIAID, told the newspaper.
The NIAID, which is part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, plans to work with the World Health Organization whose approval will be needed for the drug's deployment, Fauci told the Journal.
A Congo health ministry spokeswoman couldn't confirm the ministry's request, the WSJ added.
The drug is made from an antibody, called mAb114, derived from the blood of a survivor of the 1995 Ebola outbreak in the DRC, the newspaper said.
The Ebola outbreak has claimed 27 lives in the Congo, with the number of infections rising to 51, the news outlet reported.
For the time being, the WHO and the Congo government have started administering Merck & Co. Inc.'s vaccine, dubbed V92, even though it has yet to be approved by regulatory agencies.
