U.S. Lawmakers Urge Health Officials To Speed Up Ebola Research; Experts To Devise Ways To Ration Drugs

News outlets report on issues surrounding the development and distribution of Ebola drugs.

The Hill: Ebola fuels debate over speeding up trials for experimental drugs
“One day after the U.S. announced a military-led approach to combating Ebola, lawmakers on Wednesday urged federal health officials to speed up its clinical response to the crisis. Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) demanded to know why the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was not allowing clinical trials of certain experimental drugs, such as TKM-Ebola…” (Ferris, 9/17).

Los Angeles Times: A looming problem: How to ration Ebola vaccines and medicines
“For doctors and public health officials trying to contain the Ebola epidemic, the dearth of drugs and vaccines is only part of the problem. Once these medicines become available, there certainly won’t be enough of them to go around. So experts are devising ways to ration the precious products — and that forces them to ask some difficult questions…” (Morin, 9/17).

Science Magazine: A virologist in the hot zone
“Virologist Heinz Feldmann has spent most of his career studying the deadly Ebola virus at research institutes in Germany, Canada, and the United States. … Feldmann has co-developed one of the vaccine candidates that is scheduled to be tested soon and has helped contain several Ebola outbreaks in the past. On 8 September, he returned from three weeks in Monrovia, Liberia’s capital, where he ran a diagnostic lab for a treatment center operated by Doctors Without Borders (MSF)…” (Kupferschmidt, 9/17).

The KFF Daily Global Health Policy Report summarized news and information on global health policy from hundreds of sources, from May 2009 through December 2020. All summaries are archived and available via search.

KFF Headquarters: 185 Berry St., Suite 2000, San Francisco, CA 94107 | Phone 650-854-9400
Washington Offices and Barbara Jordan Conference Center: 1330 G Street, NW, Washington, DC 20005 | Phone 202-347-5270

www.kff.org | Email Alerts: kff.org/email | facebook.com/KFF | twitter.com/kff

The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news, KFF is a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California.