It is a general antiviral agent that does not specifically target the hepatitis C virus at all.
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And that should help it in the long race to develop new weapons against the hepatitis C virus.
During the past year, there was a frenzy to acquire drug assets aimed at the hepatitis C virus (HCV).
The drugs, so-called hepatitis C protease inhibitors, represent the first class of agents that directly target the hepatitis C virus.
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Chronic infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) is estimated to affect 170 million people worldwide, and more than five million in Europe.
That is expected to be a big selling point to many patients with the hepatitis C virus who have until now foregone treatment.
Pegasys and PEG-Intron are both significant improvements over old ways of treating the hepatitis C virus, which can slowly damage or destroy the liver.
Gemayel says that aside from the giveaway, Roche has a clear marketing message for the new treatment, which combats hepatitis C virus and the chronic liver disease it causes.
Until researchers can come out with a potent enough antiviral combo to account for the massive numbers of mutations that hepatitis c virus can produce, interferon will remain part of hepatitis C treatments.
FORBES: Why Aren't There AIDS-Style Cocktails for Hepatitis C?
"There is a very small chance that some patients could have been exposed to the hepatitis B virus, the hepatitis C virus, or HIV, based on practices identified at the facility, " the congressional memo states.
The company is betting on studies showing that patients with certain strains of the hepatitis C virus can do with half as much time on Pegasys as they can on Schering-Plough 's (nyse: SGP - news - people ) Peg-Intron.
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Hepatitis C has been a particularly tough virus to target because it has proven very difficult to grow in the lab.
The researchers said that people were more infectious at in the early days of catching hepatitis C because they had higher levels of virus.
The first clear hint of targeted therapy's potential came in late 2003, when researchers at the German firm Boehringer Ingelheim reported that its hepatitis C protease inhibitor lowered the quantity of virus particles by roughly 99.9% in eight patients in two days of treatment, beating what interferon can accomplish in that time period.
But with hepatitis C, no-one has been able to pin down how the virus spreads, because cases occur months or years apart.
Another 60 antivirals have begun clinical trials, aimed primarily at HIV, the virus that can lead to AIDS, and hepatitis B and C.
The drugs aim either to boost immune response or to attack and inactivate the viral enzymes that hepatitis C uses to replicate, in much the same way that AIDS drugs attack that virus.
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