The researchers from the University of California, Davis, Taipei Medical University and the National

Recently, the Ebola virus wreak havoc the African continent, which make vaccines, antibiotics and other drugs become the focus of our attention. However, there are indications that pharmaceutical companies are not interested in the research and development of antibiotics for treating bacterial infections, resulting in fewer new drugs available. The World Health Organization (WHO) even warned that the resistant bacteria are likely to set off a new round of large-scale global epidemic as the development of new antibiotics is "alarmingly slow". Data shows that only 96 antibiotics remained valid till the end of 2013.

Research studies showed that there were nearly 2.3 million people in the United States die from the drug-resistant bacterial infections each year. However, between 2011 and 2013, the FDA approved for only three new antibiotics, which is the least since the 1940s. WHO also pointed out that since the late 1980s, there has been no new types of antibiotics available on the market.

This is caused by the several reasons. First of all, the major pharmaceutical companies are now focusing on two aspects: one is cancer treatment which is able to fight for higher profits for pharmaceutical companies. The other is called "orphan diseases". Although with small market and low profit margin, the orphan diseases studies are usually funded by the government and cost lower. In contrast, antibiotics are not only cheaper than other drugs but also with short course of treatment, therefore they provide low-margin for pharmaceutical companies. In the meanwhile, due to the characteristics of bacteria resistant, doctors may use them only in the real crisis, which greatly limits the profitability of antibiotics and results in the reduction of pharmaceutical’s research and development initiative.

Since February this year, thousands of people in Africa have been confirmed to infect by Ebola virus, more than half of them died. This is the largest outbreak of Ebola from 1976, when it was first identified. The international medical aid organization -Doctors Without Borders-recently declared that the epidemic in the relevant countries have been out of control.

Pharmaceutical companies have joined the preparation of drugs to control Ebola virus. Despite the current World Health Organization declares there are still no effective drugs for Ebola, however, a few drugs are currently in clinical trials, and have achieved good results. Now, we sort out these potentially effective drugs

Zmapp

Zmapp, a monoclonal antibody synthetic drug, comes from animals that infected with the Ebola virus. The effectiveness of the drug had been verified by infected macaques. The pharmaceutical company produced only three drugs, two of which were provided to two patients form the United States. This was the first time of the drug used for human beings.

TKM-Ebola

TKM-Ebola, developed by the Canadian pharmaceutical Tekmira, showed a great effect in killing Ebola virus in primates. In August 9, Tekmira shares rose nearly 40 percent.

Ebola vaccine GlaxoSmithKline

The Ebola vaccine developed by GlaxoSmithKline has got positive data in animal experiments, and is currently undergoing Phase I clinical trials.

Numerologist Warda is hooked on OG-L002 fishing, collecting. And lastly her encouragement comes from socializing along with her companions.