Spain, France and Netherlands receive experimental antiviral amid hantavirus outbreak

The European Commission has arranged for the Japanese pharmaceutical company Fujifilm to donate approximately 1,400 tablets of favipiravir, an experimental antiviral, to Spain, France and the Netherlands. The drug is identified by the European Medicines Agency as the most plausible candidate for clinical trials against hantavirus, for which no approved treatments or vaccines exist. Each country will decide how to use the medication.

The donation follows a hantavirus outbreak detected earlier this month on the luxury cruise ship MV Hondius, after which passengers were off‑loaded in the Canary Islands and transferred to various European nations for isolation and medical monitoring. The EU is also preparing to procure additional doses should more cases emerge.