New Drug Shows Promise in Treating Hepatitis C

A lot of times when we discuss liver disease, we combine all of the variations into one category.  Liver disease is a chronic condition with limited treatment options and absolutely no cure.  Although the disease itself damages the liver in its own way, the various conditions leading to the development of the severe illness are all very different and challenging in their own right.  Further, each is typically approached differently and occurs for different reasons.  One of the most prevalent and probably well-known is Hepatitis C.  It causes liver problems, cancer, disease, and ultimately death.  What’s more is that Hepatitis is notoriously difficult to treat.  Fortunately, according to Reuters, a new, experimental drug may change all of that.

The drug, manufactured by Bristol-Myers Squibb, is the first of its kind, attacking a different protein in the body.  Hopefully, combating this different protein will help the body not to build up a resistance to medication used to treat liver disease.  This is encouraging because current treatment options include taking an interferon and antiviral medication for fifty-two weeks.  Unfortunately, this traditional treatment only works half of the time and many people experience side effects so crippling that they have to cease taking the medications.  This is one of the reasons that liver disease is classified as a disability for social security benefit purposes.  As a chronic condition, with no cure, the condition is taxing on individuals, compounded with the debilitating effects of necessary medications.  Often, people find that the combination of the disease and the drugs is more than they can handle, and they must stop working.

With this new drug, there is hope that it will not only prevent the body from becoming resistant to treatment, but also prevent Hepatitis C from replicating.  In fact, in an early study of the drug, individuals saw the viral load decrease by ninety-nine percent, reports Reuters.  Some individuals who took the highest dose of the drug even had the disease become undetectable in their bodies.  The research team hopes that by using this drug in combination with other medications, a person may be able to rid their body of the disease, rather than developing a resistance and allowing the virus to replicate, which is the typical course of events.  Obviously, more research and additional studies will need to be conducted to determine the drug’s overall impact on Hepatitis C; however, these early indicators seem to bode well for those currently struggling with liver disease.