Hepatitis C is the most common cause of cirrhosis (liver scarring), liver cancer and the most common reason for liver transplantation in the world. As many as 500,000 people die each year because of hepatitis C-related liver diseases.
Pharmaceutical company AbbVie made a real breakthrough in this field by developing a new experimental drug that hopefully will improve the outlook of the people suffering from hepatitis C virus (HCV).
“Turning point” in hepatitis C treatment: Previously, the cure rate in patients suffering with cirrhosis has been lower than 50% and even the treatment was not safe. Patients often relapsed and the therapy caused multiple side effects. Researchers claim this new drug can cure over 90% of patients with the infection in 12 weeks.
The new oral drug was tested by researchers on patients having liver cirrhosis. They did two studies, one in patients for 12 weeks and another for 24 weeks. After 12 weeks, they found no trace of hepatitis C virus in the bloodstream of 91.8% of patients and for those who received the medication for 24 weeks, 95.9% of those patients were found virus-free.
