( The US-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc...)New Hepatitis C Drug Shows Promise,Health

The US-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, a global biotechnology company, has released// promising early results of a trial on new hepatitis C drug, telaprevir. The drug could significantly reduce the treatment time, it has been shown.

The planned interim results of the clinical trial on telaprevir were announced at Barcelona on Saturday at the 42nd Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL).

This drug has an enormous amount of promise," Dr. Ira Jacobson, one of the study's lead investigators, said in a telephone interview. "I think treatments like this will radically alter our perception of optimal duration of therapy for hepatitis C."

Hepatitis C is a liver disease caused by the hepatitis C virus, which is found in the liver and blood of people with the disease. A serious public health concern affecting 3.4 million individuals in the United States, is spread primarily through direct contact with the blood of infected people. Though many people with hepatitis C may not experience symptoms nor be aware of their infection, others may have symptoms such as jaundice and fatigue.

Hepatitis C significantly increases a person's risk for developing chronic liver disease, cirrhosis, the need for liver transplantation, liver cancer, or death.

According to the World Health Organization, the Hepatitis C virus is a major cause of acute hepatitis and chronic liver disease, including cirrhosis and liver cancer.

It is estimated that 170 million people throughout the world are chronically infected with Hepatitis C (9 million in Europe), with 3 to 4 million new infections a year worldwide.

Hepatitis C is spread mostly by direct contact with human blood as a result of blood transfusions and re-using non-sterilized needles and syringes.

The Vertex trial showed a high rate of rapid viral response (RVR) in patients treated with telaprevir, and a low
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