Preliminary Testing Of New Drug Against Hepatitis C Shows Good Promise

Preliminary Testing Of New Drug Against Hepatitis C Shows Good Promise.
Researchers are reporting that a slip is showing hint at in early testing as a on new treatment for hepatitis C, a stubborn and potentially deadly liver ailment. It's too ahead to tell if the drug actually works, and it will be years before it's ready to seek federal blessing to be prescribed to patients. Still, the drug - or others like it in development - could tote to the power of new drugs in the pipeline that are poised to cure many more people with hepatitis C, said Dr Eugene R Schiff, big cheese of the University of Miami's Center for Liver Diseases.

The greater conceivability of a cure and fewer side effects, in turn, will lead more individuals who think they have hepatitis C to "come out of the woodwork," said Schiff, who's familiar with the bone up findings. "They'll want to know if they're positive". An estimated 4 million population in the United States have hepatitis C, but only about 1 million are thought to have been diagnosed.

The disease, transmitted through infected blood, can pass to liver cancer, scarring of the liver, known as cirrhosis, and death. Existing treatments can preserve about half of the cases. As Schiff explained, people's genetic makeup has a lot to do with whether they answer to the treatment. Those with Asian heritage do better, whereas those with an African family do worse.

And there's another potential problem with existing treatments. The side effects, expressly of the treatment component known as interferon, can be "pretty hard to deal with," said Nicholas A Meanwell, a co-author of the writing-room and a researcher with the Bristol-Myers Squibb pharmaceutical company.