Drug saves monkeys infected with a deadly virus related to Ebola

TKM-Marburg, a drug developed by pharmaceutical company Tekmira in Burnaby, Canada, proved effective in curing monkeys infected with Marburg virus, which is closely related to Ebola. The medicine worked even when it was administered days after the animals were infected, which according to the study author Thomas Geisbert, a microbiologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, is promising. The TKM-Marburg drug uses pieces of genetic material to disrupt the Marburg virus’s ability to copy itself, which stops the spread of the infection. The company now plans to test the effectiveness of the drug TKM-Ebola.

Read more in Nature.