--- title: Possible Breakthrough in MERS Treatment After Marmosets Cured description: Two widely available drugs, currently used to treat HIV and sclerosis, have been found to cure MERS-infected monkeys, new research says canonical: https://time.com/3974257/mers-treatment-drugs-marmosets-lopinavir-ritonavir/ author: Alissa Greenberg article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-28T08:19:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:42:13.596Z article:section: Health og:title: There May Have Been a Major Breakthrough in MERS Treatment og:description: Disease cured in monkeys through use of existing drugs og:url: https://time.com/3974257/mers-treatment-drugs-marmosets-lopinavir-ritonavir/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5bbaa73237ced6a3/69885cb2f887dc7b63e918f4/gettyimages-487737801.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: 487737801 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: There May Have Been a Major Breakthrough in MERS Treatment twitter:description: Disease cured in monkeys through use of existing drugs twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5bbaa73237ced6a3/69885cb2f887dc7b63e918f4/gettyimages-487737801.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # There May Have Been a Major Breakthrough in MERS Treatment > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=ac4c9aef-07dc-4aac-aa0b-5cdc46413fa8&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: This Flu Shot Is Not Like the Others [Watch (HLS stream): This Flu Shot Is Not Like the Others](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/1thSi60s.m3u8) (2:09)  _Published 2014-10-30. Some people may get a new flu shot that’s made with dog cells instead of chicken eggs_ by [Alissa Greenberg](https://time.com/author/alissa-greenberg/) ## Alissa Greenberg Jul 28, 2015 8:19 AM UTC  Mers-cov coronavirus Mers-cov coronavirus Getty Images by [Alissa Greenberg](https://time.com/author/alissa-greenberg/) ## Alissa Greenberg Jul 28, 2015 8:19 AM UTC Two existing and widely available drugs may [prove](http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/1844176/hku-scientists-recommend-two-drugs-now-use-treat) to be effective treatments for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), new research published by the University of Hong Kong suggests. According to the _South China Morning Post_, the medicines—lopinavir with ritonavir and a type of interferon—were tested on marmosets, small monkeys that a 2014 U.S. study concluded would be the best subject for MERS trials because of the way their reactions to the virus mimics human illness. The drugs, currently used to treat HIV and sclerosis, were found to be effective in curing MERS-infected marmosets. The research is the first of its kind in the world. “We would recommend doctors to start using both drugs immediately to treat MERS patients if they are critical,” said Jasper Chan Fuk-woo, one of the researchers, told _SCMP_. “The evidence in this study is quite strong in proving the effectiveness of these two drugs.” Currently, there is no known cure for MERS. Meanwhile, South Korea, which struggled with a MERS outbreak in May and June, has not reported any new MERS cases for 23 days and no deaths for more than two weeks. The country declared a “de-facto end” to its outbreak on July 28, although a spokesman for the World Health Organization [told](http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33684981) the BBC it would not declare an official end to the country’s outbreak until 28 days had passed with no new infections—twice the disease’s incubation period. \[[_SCMP_](http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/1844176/hku-scientists-recommend-two-drugs-now-use-treat)\] ## Transcript [00:00] [ MUSIC ] [00:02] This year, your annual flu shot might be more high tech [00:05] than the ones you've had before. For decades, flu shots [00:09] could only be made with the help of hundreds of thousands [00:12] of chicken eggs. Scientists grew the influenza virus in [00:16] the chicken eggs. Then purified and modified it to go into [00:19] the flu vaccine. But that process took months for the virus to [00:23] grow. In 2012 the U. S. Food and Drug [00:27] Administration approved an entirely new way of making flu [00:31] vaccines. Bypassing chicken eggs altogether and using [00:35] animal cells instead. The Novartis Plant in Holly [00:39] Springs, North Carolina is the only facility in the U. S.. [00:42] Approved to produce a cell culture- based flu vaccine [00:46] known as Flucelvax. This Influenza vaccine is grown [00:50] using cells from dog kidneys. And the process is much [00:54] faster. Taking 65 to 75 hours. Compared [00:58] to the months it took to grow with [ UNKNOWN ] [ MUSIC ] [01:03] The process begins with growing enough kidney cells to [01:06] serve as the viruses incubators. Over 20 days the [01:10] cells are put into a culture that encourages them to divide [01:13] rapidly. And as the cells grow in number they are moved [01:17] into increasingly larger vats. They start out in 5 liter. [01:21] Containers and end up in a 5000 liter tank. Once [01:25] there, the cells are infected with the flu virus. These [01:28] samples of virus arrive frozen and are chosen each year by [01:32] the World Health Organization in the spring. They [01:35] determine which flu strains they believe will be circulating [01:39] later that year. Year. After the cells produce enough virus, [01:42] the viral particles are strained out, purified, [01:46] and treated so they can't actually cause flu but can still [01:50] alert the immune system to mount a response against the [01:55] virus. This year, the facility produced 30 million doses [01:58] [ INAUDIBLE ] Including its first full batch of the vaccine. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3974257/mers-treatment-drugs-marmosets-lopinavir-ritonavir/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3974257/mers-treatment-drugs-marmosets-lopinavir-ritonavir/"},"headline":"There May Have Been a Major Breakthrough in MERS Treatment","datePublished":"2015-07-28T08:19:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:42:13.596Z","description":"Researchers in Hong Kong have cured infected monkeys of MERS using existing drugs","url":"https://time.com/3974257/mers-treatment-drugs-marmosets-lopinavir-ritonavir/","keywords":["MERS","medicine","Hong Kong","South Korea","Science topic","monkeys"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5bbaa73237ced6a3/69885cb2f887dc7b63e918f4/gettyimages-487737801.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alissa Greenberg","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alissa-greenberg/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5bbaa73237ced6a3/69885cb2f887dc7b63e918f4/gettyimages-487737801.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"487737801","caption":"487737801","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/mers/","name":"MERS"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3974257/mers-treatment-drugs-marmosets-lopinavir-ritonavir/","name":"There May Have Been a Major Breakthrough in MERS Treatment"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"This Flu Shot Is Not Like the Others","description":"Some people may get a new flu shot that’s made with dog cells instead of chicken eggs","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/1thSi60s/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-10-30T14:53:23.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/1thSi60s.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3974257/mers-treatment-drugs-marmosets-lopinavir-ritonavir/","duration":"PT2M9S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3974257/mers-treatment-drugs-marmosets-lopinavir-ritonavir/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```