There is a new market for drug makers as Ebola becomes a real threat in West Africa and is sturdily spreading to other areas. Several pharmaceutical companies and research institutions have been working around the clock to get a reliable treatment for the virus. Sarepta Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:SRPT) is one such company. On Thursday, the company made a statement that its experiment with the drug on healthy subjects had shown no ill effects.
Alongside the Ebola treatment, the company also gave a successful report on a drug developed for Marburg virus. The virus is also of the same family as the one that causes Ebola.
Another company that has its foot high in the nascent market is Ibio Inc (NYSEMKT:IBIO), which has confirmed that it can produce large quantities of Ebola drug to help combat the disease.
Information from World Health Organization (WHO) indicates that Ebola has so far killed over 4,000 people with many cases being reported. The threat is so massive that WHO said that up to 10,000 cases could be reported every week by December if the current progression isn’t tamed.
After making the announcement yesterday, shares of Sarepta Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:SRPT) rose 7% during trading hours and another 5% after trade-hours. Ibio Inc (NYSEMKT:IBIO) also gained 32% Thursday to trade at $1.84.
Sarepta Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:SRPT) had carried out the tests on non-human primates. The company hasn’t carried out the test on humans, but the test on the other subjects gave 60%-80% success while that of Marburg was 80%-100%.
“We believe these promising early clinical safety results, coupled with the strong safety and efficacy data generated from animal studies for all four PMO compounds, reinforce the use of our PMOplus® chemistry platform to pursue potential treatments for deadly infectious diseases such as Ebola and Marburg,” said Michael Wong, senior medical director, infectious diseases at Sarepta Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:SRPT).
If the company succeeds in making an effective treatment and Ibio Inc (NYSEMKT:IBIO) mass-produces it, it will be a big leap in the fight against the disease. Because of such prospects, the two companies are quite appealing to investors now.
This article has been written by Victor Ochieng.
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