Ebola Drug Trial Is Halted for Lack of Patients

A clinical trial in Liberia of a drug to treat Ebola has been halted because of a sharp decline in the number of people infected with the virus, and studies in West Africa of other potential treatments are also facing problems finding patients.

The halted trial was testing the antiviral drug brincidofovir at a clinic in Monrovia, Liberia. The developer of the drug, Chimerix, announced late Friday that it would no longer participate in the study.

“Without having enough patients there to make any conclusions, it wasn’t feasible for us to push forward,” Dr. M. Michelle Berrey, chief executive of Chimerix, said in an interview Sunday.

She said the decision to stop the trial in Liberia was made after discussions with the Food and Drug Administration, Doctors Without Borders and investigators at the University of Oxford.

A version of this article appears in print on February 2, 2015, on page B2 of the New York edition with the headline: Ebola Drug Trial Is Halted for Lack of Patients. Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe

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