A steady flow of Hepatitis C Treatments is being produced, and each is being hailed as the next best thing, either promising to give new hope to those who have unsuccessfully gone through treatment before, offering new ways to attack the most arduous Hep C strain, genotype 1, or just better Hepatitis C treatment overall.
But with all these Hepatitis C treatments flooding the market, how do you navigate the new options? There’s always a risk with new treatments—for example, Merck’s new Hepatitis C treatment Victrelis has since been shown to interact with HIV treatments, causing them not to work. And indeed, some Hepatitis C treatments are better than others!
I’ve noticed an exciting trend in the news for Hep C that might actually add some practical uses: stock market investors have been taking a keen interest in Hepatitis C treatments—presumably because baby boomers have such a high rate of infection and are about to hit the age where Hepatitis C symptoms begin to become a problem if you haven’t already been tested and aren’t seeking treatment.
What is this trend? With such a high level of interest, you occasionally get a little more information about the new Hepatitis C treatments coming out—people who understand biology, or sometimes a university researcher making armchair commentary in an interview—and that information is immediately absorbed, and investors choose a Hepatitis C treatment champion to back.
It doesn’t remove all the risks and unknowns, but it’s an extra research piece.
The current favorite, by the way, is a forthcoming drug from Gilead Science, due to start human trials soon. It works by attacking HCV’s RNA and stopping it from reproducing. It has already shown high promise in Hepatitis C treatment for genotypes 2 & 3, which is supposed to carry over to genotype 1.
Ultimately, we can only hope that all this interest in Hepatitis C treatment will lead to better, safer options.
Â
