Two companies’ mid-stage trials have come back to report that their methods of treating patients suffering from Hepatitis C have effectively a 100% cure rate. Hepatitis C is particularly difficult because those affected can be asymptomatic while the virus scars their livers.
Gilead Sciences, Inc. reported on Saturday that their combination of drugs comes back with a 100% cure rate on the most common and hardest to treat form of Hepatitis C. The drugs in question are sofosbuvir, ribavirin and GS-5885, all of which I believe are made up and they simply used the blood of three virgins.
Meanwhile, Rival Abbott Laboratories, Inc., ran through their series of oral medication trial runs with Hepatitis C patients. The cure rates were “unprecedented” for those who had previously received standard treatment that failed to temper the virus, and those who never received any sort of treatment came back from their 12-week run of drugs with a high cure rate as well.
NS5A inhibitors, of which the above GS-5885 comes from, is a new class of drug that prevents the Hepatitis C virus from replicating, effectively stopping it in its tracks.
Gilead says after four weeks of treatment, Hepatitis C was “undetectable” in patients.
Equally promising, the drugs show no adverse side effects and patients can tolerate it well. One patient dropped out of the trial run due to a side effect “unrelated” to the drugs.
If you’re thinking, “man, I should probably buy some stock in Gilead” — you’d be a smart man and probably already too slow to the punch. I haven’t even checked but I’m sure their stock has gone up quite a bit already in the last few days.
Question: What’s the next virus we should tackle?