Been There, Done That

There's a lot of us who've tried the whole treatment thing.  It didn't work; either because:

• we're in the "lucky" 75% of U.S. genotype 1's, half of whom don't clear the virus 6 months post treatment, or
• we developed an allergy or rash or autoimmune disease or some other such crap from the medicine, or
• were about to lose our job, thus our insurance, or
• we just couldn't f-ing take it anymore, or
• because we didn't want to - or couldn't - stop drinking,
• or ________________________ (fill in the blank).

o.k., o.k. ... that's enough whining.  Here's what's coming down the pike.

Inhibitors

           (and we don't mean shy people)

As you may recall from the straightup on why hep C's so hard to get rid of (here), the virus gets inside of us and reproduces itself - a lot like our normal proteins & enzymes inside of us do, except we want to keep the good stuff .  Get the picture?  If not take a look at this flash movie for a minute ... here.

So the next thing scientists and pharmaceutical companies are working on are inhibitors (protease, polymerase and caspase inhibitors).  If they sound like the drugs people with HIV take to keep from getting AIDS - it's because they are ... except targeted for hep C.

Anyway ... what these will do is make the virus stop reproducing itself, to give the interferon a chance to do its stuff.  It's hoped that the inhibitors will cut out the whole ribavirin part and shorten the time on treatment.  So we get less sick, more genotype 1's get cured and insurance companies and the rest of us are happy.

The catch ...

 ... to find an inhibitor that won't stop the good proteins and enzymes to stop replicating, thereby causing organ failure.  It's pretty tricky - and something to be careful about jumping into until these drugs get to Phase III or IV trials.

So, of the several possible new inhibitors found (aka, drug candidates, or novel compounds), most don't get out of pre-clinical studies - the monkey died.  At this point, these baby drugs are referred to by initials & numbers.  If they show promise, a company will give the thing a name. 

  Stay tuned ...       

  fyi ...

like shovelheads and science, these drugs are a work in progress.

The bottom line

Going on treatment is YOUR decision, like it says here.  Also, see our disclaimer ... here.

                                                                                                          Stay tuned ....

The FDA
   … aka Food & Drug Administration is the agency that gives drug companies the go ahead - or not - to sell medications in the U.S.

   Ideally, the drugs have to pass a series of studies, aka Phases.  FDA.gov's site describes them like so:

Phase I: Researchers test a new drug or treatment in a small group of people for the first time to evaluate its safety, determine a safe dosage range, and identify side effects

Phase II: The study drug or treatment is given to a larger group of people to see if it is effective and to further evaluate its safety.

Phase III: The study drug or treatment is given to large groups of people to confirm its effectiveness, monitor side effects, compare it to commonly used treatments, and collect information that will allow the drug or treatment to be used safely.

   Straightup, the best deal for us is the Phase IV trial, aka "marketing study" that will determine what kind of language a Pharma can use to sell its drug.  Our best bet because the drug's already proven safe.

   There's also "Pre-clinical," which is pretty much lab stuff; messing with gunk in petri dishes; animal testing ... like with hep C, chimpanzees are used, because dogs can't catch it; preclinical proves the general concept.