Vertex pharamaceuticals.

• Localización: Scientific American, ISSN 0036-8733, Vol. 291, Nº. 6, 2004, págs. 56-56
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Focuses on the efforts of Vertex Pharmaceuticals to develope better treatments against hepatitis C. Antiviral treatments exist for hepatitis C, a disease that affects 185 million people worldwide. They are not as effective as they could be, however, because they do not target specific proteins used by the virus to do its dirty work. Several companies have now devised a more effective weapon against hepatitis C, protease inhibitors. The company that appears to have taken a drug candidate the furthest is Vertex Pharmaceuticals. It entered a clinical trial in June with an oral drug that blocks a protease, a protein essential for the virus to reproduce. Hepatitis C induces inflammation of the liver, which can lead to liver failure and other ailments.