中国向非洲发运抗埃博拉药物

China has sent thousands of doses of an experimental anti-Ebola drug developed by the Chinese military to Africa. The company manufacturing the drug said it plans to start human clinical trials there soon.

中国已将中国军方研发的一种实验性抗埃博拉(Ebola)药物送往非洲，数量达到数千剂。制造该药的公司表示，计划在那里很快开始人体临床试验。

Sihuan Pharmaceutical, the private Chinese company that last week purchased the rights to commercialise jk-05 from a branch of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), said it began manufacturing the drug after it was approved in August as a “special drug for military needs”.

四环医药(Sihuan Pharmaceutical)上周向中国军事医学科学院（简称“军科院”）买下jk-05的商业化权利。该公司表示，它在该药8月“获得军队特需药物批件”后就投入了制造。

The Chinese military has already sent enough of the drug to treat 10,000 people to west Africa, according to Dr Huo Caixia, associate president of research and development for Sihuan and head of its Beijing Aohe Drug Research Institute. Sihuan, whose founders are former military doctors, is part-owned by Morgan Stanley private equity funds.

四环医药研发部总经理助理、该公司旗下北京澳合药物研究院院长霍彩霞介绍说，中国军方已向西非发运了足以治疗1万人的药物。四环医药的创始人是前军医。摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)旗下的私募股权基金持有该公司部分股权。

The aim is to have the drug on hand in case any of the Chinese medical personnel sent to help out with the Ebola epidemic fall ill and for use in clinical trials which are now being designed, she said. It had not yet been used to treat any African patients, she said, but added that could not be ruled out.

她说，目标是准备好药物储备，以备被派去帮助抗击埃博拉疫情的中国医务人员受到感染，并用于目前正在策划的临床试验。她表示，迄今该药尚未被用于治疗非洲的任何病人，但随后又说，无法查证这一点。

Eager to cement its relationship with African countries that may be affected by the virus, China is stepping up its contributions to the fight against Ebola.

中国正加大其对抗击埃博拉疫情所作的贡献，急于巩固中国与可能受疫情影响的非洲国家之间的关系。

Beijing has sent 200 medical workers to the affected countries and pledged more than $35m in medical aid to Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and the World Health Organisation. China told a World Bank crisis meeting in Washington last week its Ebola effort was already worth $200m altogether and would grow further.

北京方面已向受影响的国家派出200名医务工作者，并承诺向塞拉利昂、利比里亚、几内亚和世界卫生组织(WHO)提供3500多万美元医疗援助。中国在上周于华盛顿举行的世界银行(World Bank)危机会议上表示，中国为抗击埃博拉作出的贡献总计已达到2亿美元，并且在进一步增长。

China’s Academy of Military Medical Science, which according to its website was set up in 1951 by Mao Zedong to help China counter germ warfare waged by the US in North Korea, declined to comment on jk-05.

军科院官网称，该院是毛泽东在1951年指示成立的，目的是帮助中国对抗美国在朝鲜发动的细菌战。该院拒绝对jk-05置评。

The large amount of the drug already present in Africa puts it on a scale with GlaxoSmithKline’s plans, announced in August, to manufacture 10,000 doses of an experimental Ebola vaccine being developed with the US National Institutes of Health. Human trials are under way in the US, UK and Mali to prove its safety.

已经送到非洲的药物数量在规模上与葛兰素史克(GSK)的计划相仿。GSK在8月宣布，将制造1万剂与美国国立卫生研究院(National Institutes of Health)合作开发的埃博拉实验性疫苗。人体试验已在美国、英国和马里展开，以证明其安全性。

The Chinese drug is being developed to treat Ebola and is not a vaccine. But it also has preventive uses, according to Dr Huo. She said it had passed cell and animal tests, but not human testing. Clinical trials would initially be done in Africa, she said, since no Chinese patients have yet contracted the disease.

上述中国研发的药物将被用于治疗埃博拉，而不作为疫苗。但霍彩霞说，它也有预防的用途。她表示，该药已通过细胞和动物实验，但尚未在人体上试验。她说，临床试验将首先在非洲进行，因为还没有中国患者受到感染。

Sihuan has released little technical information about jk-05, beyond saying that it “can selectively inhibit virus replication by inhibiting the RNA polymerase of the Ebola virus”. That means it blocks a key enzyme that the virus needs to replicate its genes.

四环医药几乎没有发布jk-05的技术信息，只是说，这种药物是“新型的核糖核酸(RNA)聚合酶选择性抑制剂，能够抑制埃博拉病毒的RNA聚合酶，从而达到抑制病毒复制的目的”。也就是说，该药物能够抑制埃博拉病毒复制基因时需要的一种关键酶。