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Biotech / Medical : Indications -- Hepatitis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tuck who wrote (38)	5/13/2003 1:54:20 PM
From: keokalani'nui	Respond to of 312

Hepatitis C Drug Market to Grow from $2.5 Billion in 2002 to More Than $9 Billion in 2012 Tuesday May 13, 8:06 am ET Schering-Plough and Roche Will Capitalize on Growth in this Market, but Considerable Opportunity Remains for Competitors, According to a New Study From Decision Resources WALTHAM, Mass., May 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Decision Resources, Inc., one of the world's leading research and advisory firms focusing on pharmaceutical and health care issues, finds that the hepatitis C virus (HCV) drug market will grow from $2.5 billion in 2002 to more than $9 billion in 2012. A major factor contributing to growth over the next ten years will be an increase in the number of diagnosed patients, as patients who have been infected with HCV for more than 15 years present with advanced liver disease. Additional growth will come from the ever-expanding population of patients who did not respond to initial therapy, and are increasingly being retreated with a second course of interferon/ribavirin therapy and/or emerging antivirals, according to a new Pharmacor study entitled Hepatitis C. The study also found that Schering-Plough and Roche's PEG-IFN-alpha products will benefit from increased uptake in the near term owing to their improved clinical efficacy. "Hepatitis C represents a high-growth opportunity for the biopharmaceutical industry over the next decade," said John Lebbos M.D., senior analyst at Decision Resources. "The HCV diagnosed patient population is expected to expand significantly and there remains a high unmet need: the combination PEG-IFN/ribavirin, which is the current standard of therapy, is associated with significant side effects and is not effective in a large subset of patients." Disease Facts-Hepatitis C The vast majority of HCV-infected individuals have few or no symptoms and therefore remain unaware of their disease. In fact, a significant proportion of individuals infected with HCV die with rather than from this infection. The fact that HCV is associated with a relatively low direct mortality contributes to the continued debate among experts about who should and should not receive treatment for chronic hepatitis C.

To: tuck who wrote (38)	5/13/2003 3:56:36 PM
From: tuck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 312

[siRNA] >>EMBO Rep 2003 Jun;4(6):1-7 Inhibition of intracellular hepatitis C virus replication by synthetic and vector-derived small interfering RNAs. Yokota T, Sakamoto N, Enomoto N, Tanabe Y, Miyagishi M, Maekawa S, Yi L, Kurosaki M, Taira K, Watanabe M, Mizusawa H. [1] Department of Neurology and Neurological Science, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, 1-5-45 Yushima, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8519, Japan [2] Gene Function Research Laboratory, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Central 4, 1-1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba Science City 305-8562, Japan [3] These authors contributed equally to this work. Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) efficiently inhibit gene expression by RNA interference. Here, we report efficient inhibition, by both synthetic and vector-derived siRNAs, of hepatitis C virus (HCV) replication, as well as viral protein synthesis, using an HCV replicon system. The siRNAs were designed to target the 5' untranslated region (5' UTR) of the HCV genome, which has an internal ribosomal entry site for the translation of the entire viral polyprotein. Moreover, the 5' UTR is the most conserved region in the HCV genome, making it an ideal target for siRNAs. Importantly, we have identified an effective site in the 5' UTR at which approximately 80% suppression of HCV replication was achieved with concentrations of siRNA as low as 2.5 nM. Furthermore, DNA-based vectors expressing siRNA against HCV were also effective, which might allow the efficient delivery of RNAi into hepatocytes in vivo using viral vectors. Our results support the feasibility of using siRNA-based gene therapy to inhibit HCV replication, which may prove to be valuable in the treatment of hepatitis C.<< Cheers, Tuck