"We have good news," Putin was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti news agency. "We have registered a drug against Ebola, which after the corresponding tests has been shown to be highly effective, more effective than the drugs used world-wide up to now." To date no approved vaccine or treatment for Ebola exists and the UN's World Health Organisation has authorised the fast-track development of drugs.
The pharmaceutical scramble sparked by the two-year Ebola crisis - which killed more than 11,000 people in west Africa - has yielded several promising vaccine candidates but none has yet been tested in general, non-infected populations - the gold standard for proving efficacy. Similarly, none of the many potential treatments under investigation has been shown to work. Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova said at a government meeting with Putin that Russia has developed a vaccine that was "unique and has no equivalents in the world".