A UN medical employee infected with the Ebola virus while working in Liberia has died after arriving in Germany last week for treatment, the hospital says.

The medic, who has not been named, was the third Ebola patient to be treated in Germany.

“The Ebola patient died during the night in the St Georg Clinic in Leipzig,” the hospital said in a statement.

“Despite intensive medical measures and maximum efforts by the medical team, the 56-year-old UN employee succumbed to the serious infectious disease.”

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The first reported Ebola death in Germany comes as a Chinese drugmaker looks to fast-track approval for a drug it claimed can cure the disease.

Sihuan Pharmaceutical Holdings Group has linked up with China’s Academy of Military Medical Sciences to help push the drug, called JK-05, through the approval process in China and bring it to market.

The drug, developed by the academy, is currently approved for emergency military use only.

JK-05 has not yet undergone clinical trials, but Sihuan management said the firm was actively working towards clinical tests of the drug, which could be shorter than normally required.

The drug has also shown promise against diseases such as influenza and yellow fever.

“We believe that we can file to the Chinese Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) before the end of the year,” Sihuan’s chairman Che Fengsheng said last week.

Company management and analysts said an Ebola outbreak in China would further speed up the approval process and development of the drug.

Sihuan’s drug is only one contender amongst a number of experimental cures worldwide to treat Ebola.

The current Ebola outbreak is the worst outbreak on record and has killed more than 4,000 people, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.