Gilead Sciences said on Thursday it would donate about 5,000 vials of its antiviral drug remdesivir to Rwanda’s medical supply for emergency use in response to the Marburg virus outbreak.
The drug is supplied in collaboration with the Rwandan Ministry of Health and the Africa Centers for Disease Control, Gilead said.
Remdesivir, used during the pandemic to treat COVID-19 and originally developed to treat Ebola, is not approved for the treatment of Marburg disease and its safety and effectiveness against the virus are unknown, the drugmaker said.
The first outbreak of viral fever in Rwanda, which causes symptoms such as high fever, severe headache and malaise, was detected in late September and has killed 11 people so far.
Earlier today, Rwanda’s health minister said the country would begin clinical trials of experimental Marburg disease vaccines and treatments in the coming weeks.
The virus, which has a mortality rate of 88% to date, is transmitted to humans by fruit bats, before spreading through contact with the bodily fluids of infected people.
