September 21, 2012

Despite Setbacks, Optimism on Drugs for Hepatitis C

Science 21 September 2012:
Vol. 337 no. 6101 pp. 1450-1451
DOI: 10.1126/science.337.6101.1450

News Focus

Infectious Disease

Jon Cohen

Summary

Bristol-Myers Squibb recently pulled the plug on a drug against hepatitis C virus, one of the furthest along in clinical trials of a new class of agents against HCV, because of toxicity. Researchers are now trying to understand why the drug failed and the impact it might have on other drugs in the pipeline—some of which work through similar mechanisms. Most are cautiously optimistic, however, that other drugs in development will pan out and that the failure will not seriously dent hopes of curing the disease with a short, relatively safe course of treatment that would work worldwide.

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