Dallas Ebola patient gets experimental drug

Berlin Hospital Prepares For Possible Ebola Cases

BERLIN, GERMANY - AUGUST 11: A nurse and a doctor for tropical medicine wearing isolation suits demonstrate the decontamination procedure as part of ebola treatment capability at Station 59 at Charite hospital on August 11, 2014 in Berlin, Germany. The specialized quarantine unit at Station 59 is among a handful of facilities in Germany nationwide that are capable of handling ebola cases. According to media reports a German medical student currently in Ruanda is showing signs of the disease, though should he in fact have ebola it is so far unclear whether he would be flown to Germany for treatment. The disease has so far claimed over 1,000 lives in western Africa in recent weeks. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Photograph by Sean Gallup—Getty Images

This post is in partnership with Time. The article below was originally published at Time.com.

By Alexandra Sifferlin, TIME

Dallas Ebola patient Thomas Duncan is now receiving an experimental drug called brincidofovir, a broad-spectrum antiviral that has appeared promising against Ebola in test tube studies. The drug is currently being tested on animals but has not been tested on humans.

Duncan is still in critical condition, according to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.

The drug is an oral medication developed by the biopharmaceutical company Chimerix (CMRX). The company says the drug received Emergency Investigational New Drug Applications (EIND) from the Food and Drug Administration on Monday morning and it is working with the agency to open a clinical trial. The request for use of investigational drugs can be made by physicians. So far, this drug has only shown effectiveness against the virus in vitro.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Tom Frieden previously said the decision of whether to treat Duncan with any experimental drugs would be left up Duncan, his family and his doctors.