Pharmasset's Hepatitis C Drug: How it Could Change Australia

Pharmasset’s Hepatitis C Drug: How it Could Change Australia

By Lord Jorrel Polintan | January 25, 2012 2:41 PM EST

Finding cures for diseases is always a tall order to take up on, but to have a drug that can cure a disease without fail is almost too good to be true. That is why when the news that Pharmasset Inc. is working on a drug that can cure hepatitis C without fail, people started buzzing, and wondered how a sure fire drug could affect the world, but more importantly, Australia.

Hepatitis C is infamous world-wide for being a virus that can cause liver inflammation and liver disease. With more and more people getting the disease, especially in Australia, a cure for it would be a heaven sent. In response to this problem, a new drug is being developed.

And in the study that was conducted by the company, 40 patients who received the experimental drug were responsive after 12 weeks, and that just after 24 hours, around half of the patients were all cured of hepatitis C, Bloomberg reported. Though being criticized by the number of patients it was tested on, the results are still very impressive and promising.

At present, some cases of hep C infection may clear up without treatment and are only asked to avoid alcohol and medications that might affect the liver. However, generally, those with liver abnormalities due to the infection undergo 24 to 48 weeks of treatment consisting of pegylated interferon alpha and the antiviral drug ribavirin, according to the American Family Physician.

What with a drug that can cure hepatitis C and Australia's growing problem with the disease, the drug could significantly change the playing field. According to the Australian Hepatitis C Support, in 2006, about 1% of the population, or 271,000 people, were exposed to the virus, and that there were 12,500 people diagnosed with hepatitis C infection.

But now, things have changed. According to the Annual Surveillance Report 2011 of the University of New South Wales, there is an estimated 221,000 people living in the country with chronic hepatitis C infection, which includes 48,000 with moderate to severe liver disease.

Even with the various programs and efforts in Australia, such as the Fourth Community Pharmacy Agreement which funded $10.3 million for the preventions and reduction of the transmission of the virus, or the Hepatitis C Public Health Promotion Program which was developed to increase awareness and accessibility of information about the virus, the number of those with the virus is rising.
And with current treatments lasting longer periods of time than that of the drug being developed, the sooner the drug comes out, the sooner will the numbers go down.

In trying to reach out for comments, Gilead Sciences, now the mother company of Pharmasset Inc., told International Business Times that having just completed acquisition of Pharmasset, Gilead is now in the process of integrating the hepatitis C drug into their pipeline and determining timelines and their next step.

After all is said and done, the world could soon see a readily available drug in the market that can cure hepatitis C completely.