Re: Re: Now this is VERY COOL

[Guest guest]

DianeThe only problem being - these new drugs take a long, long time going through trials etc. before they will be available. Granted, when I read this article I felt happy that maybe, finally, there is going to be medication that beats the dragon with the number they have quoted. Then, for about 30 secs, I think I felt jealous! It took me two tx's to finally clear the dragon using that damn interferon!! LOLGloria

I also ran across this in searching for trials. My curiosity was spiked after the new doctor mentioned a possible short treatment time. At this point I hope my husband can get in on this one. Also thought about those here that did not clear after treatment. There is hope !

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> Pharmasset Hep C Data Wows Investors

> Treatment with two oral drugs developed by Pharmasset resulted in 15 of 16, or 94%, of patients reporting undetectable levels of the hepatitis C virus after 14 days, according to interim results from a study released Monday.

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> These early data on the two Pharmasset drugs -- PSI-938 and PSI-7977 are the best reported to date by any company seeking to develop a new, all-oral therapy for hepatitis C. This Pharmasset effort is drawing even more attention because it potentially eliminates the need for patients to be treated with long-acting interferon, one of two drugs currently used to treat hepatitis C but which is difficult for patients to tolerate and causes many side effects.

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> Pharmasset shares rose 24% on Monday and were up another 8% to $66.92 on Tuesday.

> The PSI-938 and PSI-7977 combination data were released Monday in a research abstract released online by the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), which holds its annual meeting March 30 through April 3.

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> EASL makes research abstracts for its annual meeting freely available to the public but prohibits journalists from writing about the data contained in the research abstracts until they are presented at the annual meeting. TheStreet refuses to adhere to EASL's media embargo since these hepatitis C data are freely available online now and are impacting the stock prices of publicly traded companies developing hepatitis C drugs.

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> While investors are displaying great enthusiasm for the Pharmasset all-oral drug combination, the data from the study are very early. One particular risk seen in other, similar studies that omit long-acting interferon is the development of mutated hepatitis C virus that can quickly become resistant to drug treatment.

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> None of the patients treated in the Pharmasset study have reported rebounding levels of hepatitis C virus, according to the research abstract, but so-called viral rebound may emerge as patients are treated longer, or when treatment is stopped and these patients are followed long-term to determine if they are truly cured.

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> http://www.thestreet.com/story/11035552/1/pharmasset-hep-c-data-wows-investors.html?cm_ven=GOOGLEN

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