Currently a drug called interferon alpha-2b is given to patients for a 48-week period.
The standard interferon alpha-2b treatment three times a week.
Writing in the Lancet medical journal, researchers from The International Hepatitis Interventional Therapy Group report a new treatment for chronic HCV infection that uses a combination of interferon alpha-2b and a drug called ribavirin.
But even with shorter regimens, both drugs will still have to be given with interferon alpha, the two-decade old antiviral drug made by Merck and Roche that causes nasty flu like side-effects, including fever and fatigue.
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The best treatments up to now, interleukin-2 or interferon-alpha, help only 15% of patients.
Raison is also internationally recognized for his expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of interferon-alpha-induced depression and anxiety.
Existing drug regimens are based on various genetically engineered versions of the natural immune system protein alpha interferon combined with a second chemical, ribavirin.
Those drugs aim to improve on current treatment regimens based on the immune protein alpha interferon--which often don't work and have an array of nasty side effects.
An anonymous pharmaceutical company on Celera's subscriber list is now working to see if the gene will produce an alpha interferon protein that might be used as a drug.
Existing hep C treatments, based on bioengineered versions of the natural immune system protein alpha interferon, attack the virus indirectly and work half the time, at best, for the most common strain.
Drug therapy with alpha-interferon slows the disease, but side effects are so severe that many can't bear it.
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