Tekmira Pharma in focus as the world awaits Ebola treatment

The outbreak of the deadly and highly infectious Ebola disease in Africa has already claimed many hundreds of lives. According to reports many health workers including doctors and nurses have also fallen prey to the worst outbreak of the disease.

Outbreak alerts FDA

With the severity of the outbreak increasing each passing day, the US Food and Drug Administration declared late last week that it will collaborate with companies to develop treatments to combat the deadly virus, report analysts at Zacks Equity Research. There is currently no approved treatment for the Ebola virus. According to Reuters, the FDA is not averse to proposals that aim to offer treatments to combat Ebola under special emergency new drug applications in the event of the therapy having a favorable benefit-risk profile.

A Canadian company, RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutics developer Tekmira Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: TKMR), one of the few companies developing treatments for Ebola, gained significantly following the FDA announcement.