Hepatitis C
Hepatitis C is another leading cause of chronic liver disease and liver transplants. The WHO estimates that nearly 180 million people worldwide are infected with HCV. In the United States, 3.2 million people are chronically infected with HCV with 70% of these patients develop some from of chronic liver disease including cirrhosis and liver cancer. Therefore, HCV represents one of the most important areas for infectious disease drug development.
Current standard treatment with pegylated interferon-alfa and ribavirin achieves cure only in approximately 50% of the patients, and is fraught with serious side effects including fatigue, bone marrow suppression, anemia and neuropsychiatric effects. All these factors represent key areas of unmet medical need and potential opportunity for drug developers for the multibillion dollar market.