Bristol-Myers liver cancer drug fails trial

2011-12-22T17:00:06Z

(Reuters) - Bristol-Myers Squibb Co said on Thursday its liver cancer drug brivanib failed to meet the primary endpoint in a late-stage clinical trial.

Brivanib failed to meet the main goal of improving overall survival versus placebo in liver cancer patients who failed or are intolerant to sorafenib. Sorafenib is use...

Bristol-Myers, J&J team up against hepatitis C

2011-12-02T10:30:26Z

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bristol-Myers Squibb Co and Johnson & Johnson plan to jointly develop experimental treatments for hepatitis C in a market worth billions of dollars.

The drugs being developed by the two companies work by blocking different proteins than those attacked by traditional treatments for...

China clinic blamed for hepatitis C outbreak

2011-11-30T13:30:41Z

More than 150 Chinese villagers, many of them children, may have been infected with hepatitis C by a clinic that reused old needles, state media and local authorities said Wednesday.

Nineteen people who received treatment at the privately-run clinic in central China have tested positive for the disease, which the World Health Organisation says can...

Gilead bets $11 billion on hepatitis in Pharmasset deal

2011-11-21T14:30:15Z

(Reuters) - Gilead Sciences Inc struck a deal to buy biotechnology company Pharmasset Inc for about $11 billion in a huge and risky bet on the next generation of hepatitis C treatments.

Gilead, the world's largest maker of...

Gilead to buy biotech Pharmasset for $11 billion

2011-11-21T10:30:34Z

(Reuters) - Gilead Sciences Inc struck a deal to buy biotechnology company Pharmasset Inc for about $11 billion in a huge bet on the next generation of hepatitis C treatments.

Gilead, the world's largest maker of HIV drugs, will pay $137 per ...

Gilead to buy Pharmasset for $11 billion

2011-11-21T05:30:23Z

(Reuters) - Gilead Sciences Inc struck a deal to buy Pharmasset Inc for about $11 billion in a huge bet on hepatitis C treatments to diversify its portfolio.

Gilead, the world's largest maker of HIV drugs, will pay $137 per share for each Pharmasset share, a w...

Pioneering liver treatment cures baby

2011-11-15T19:30:42Z

Doctors said they had cured a baby boy of a life-threatening liver disease using a pioneering treatment in which cells are injected into the abdomen.

The team from London's King's College Hospital treated eight-month old Iyaad Syed by injecting him with a group of cells, which acted as a temporary liver while his real organ recovered from damage caused by a virus, King's College Hospital treated eight-month old Iyaad Syed by injecting him with a group of cells, which acted as a temporary liver while his real organ recovered from damage caused by a virus, Joe Frazier, battling advanced liver cancer, is in the prayers of his most famous rival -- Muhammad Ali.

"The news about Joe is hard to believe and even harder to accept," Ali, who fought a famed trilogy of bouts with Frazier in the 1970s, said in a statement. "Joe is a fighter and a champion, and I am praying he is fighting now."

Fra...

Pharmasset starts late-stage trial of hep C drug

2011-11-01T11:30:12Z

(Reuters) - Pharmasset Inc said it started a late-stage trial of its experimental hepatitis C drug, sending the pharmaceutical company's shares up as much as 12 percent.

The study will seek to ascertain whether the drug, PSI-7977, taken orally along with ribavirin -- which is currently used as part of the standard treatment for the hepatitis C...

Vertex CEO sees "historic launch" for Hep-C drug

2011-10-20T07:30:29Z

BOSTON (Reuters) - The chief executive of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc, Matthew Emmens, said on Thursday that adoption of its recently-launched hepatitis C drug, Incivek, has been "very very fast."

Merck puts faith in hepatitis, c. difficile drugs

2011-09-14T14:00:21Z

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The head of infectious diseases at Merck & Co said the company's future all-oral treatments for hepatitis C and its experimental drug for infections with clostridium difficile bacteria could transform treatment and reap big sales.

Merck and biotechnology company Vertex Pharmaceuti...

Wisconsin clinic may have exposed patients to bloodborne disease

2011-08-29T14:30:08Z

MADISON, Wis (Reuters) - A Wisconsin health clinic said on Monday it was notifying 2,345 patients that a former employee may have exposed some of them to blood-borne diseases such as Hepatitis or HIV from 2006 through 2011.

The Madison, Wisconsin-based Dean Clinic said it h...

Gregg Allman cancels tour due to respiratory illness

2011-08-08T13:30:20Z

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Gregg Allman, the southern rock legend and frontman for The Allman Brothers Band, has canceled a series of summer concerts due to a lingering upper respiratory condition, his representatives ...

Merck gets subpoena tied to marketing of 3 drugs

2011-08-08T07:00:10Z

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Department of Justice has issued Merck & Co a subpoena seeking information about the drugmaker's marketing of three drugs acquired in its 2009 merger with Schering-Plough Corp.

The subpoena, which Merck disclosed in its quarterly securities fili...

10 million illegal drug users have hepatitis C: study

2011-07-27T20:30:19Z

Some 10 million people who inject illegal drugs have hepatitis C while 1.2 million have hepatitis B, according to the first global estimate of infection rates among this population, published Thursday.

Both viral diseases are debilitating and potentially deadly, and public health officials must step up efforts to combat blood-borne transmission and to lower treatment costs, the researchers urged.

The health and economic costs of hepatitis C (HCV) spread via injected drugs, on...

Un tercio de población mundial infectada con hepatitis: OMS

2011-07-26T13:30:21Z

GINEBRA (Reuters) - Cerca de un tercio de la población mundial, o 2.000 millones de personas, han sido infectadas con hepatitis, que causa la muerte a cerca de un millón de víctimas al año, dijo el martes la Organización Mundial de la Salud (OMS).

Y aunque la mayoría de los portadores de la enfermedad que afecta al higado no saben que la tienen, pueden transmitirla a los d...

J&J warns doctors of Doxil cancer-drug shortage

2011-07-21T14:30:15Z

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson has cautioned doctors not to begin treatment with its Doxil cancer drug because of shortages of the medicine made by an outside manufacturer.

The company had informed doctors last month about a potential shortage of the injectable medicine, made by a unit of German drugmaker Hong Kong researchers have found that men are more likely to develop liver cancer due to a type of gene which is linked to male sex hormones.

Researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong said a study conducted since 2008 found more than 70 percent of patients with liver cancer produced high levels of a gene called...

HK experts identify gene that promotes liver cancer growth

2011-07-20T10:00:10Z

HONG KONG (Reuters) - A recently-discovered gene may be responsible for the proliferation of liver cancer cells, a study in Hong Kong has found, and researchers hope this finding may offer new ideas for therapy.

In a paper published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the researchers said the gene needed to be switched on by the male se...

Experts find rogue stem cells in liver cancer

2011-07-07T04:30:13Z

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Liver cancers are embedded with a type of super cancer stem cells that make them resistant to chemotherapy, spread to other body parts and stage a comeback even after they are surgically removed, researchers in Hong Kong reported on Thursday.

The discovery, published this week in the journal Cell Stem Cell, is important ...

Programs may curb hepatitis C in drug users

2011-06-28T12:00:17Z

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Programs that give injection drug users clean needles or safer drug substitutes may help cut their odds of contracting the liver infection hepatitis C, a new study suggests.

The hepatitis C virus is passed through contact with infected blood. Health care workers are particularly vulnerable, as are people who get tattoos in unclean environments. But in the U....

US approves second new hepatitis C drug

2011-05-23T12:30:30Z

The US Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved Incivek to treat hepatitis C when taken along with the current two-drug regimen, marking the second such drug approval this month.

"The sustained virologic response for patients treated with Incivek across all studies, and across all patient groups, was between 20 and 45 percent higher than current standard of care," the FDA said.

Inci...

Vertex hepatitis C drug wins U.S. approval

2011-05-23T07:30:37Z

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc's highly anticipated hepatitis C drug won U.S. approval, heralding a new era of treatment for the liver-destroying condition.

The approval, announced by the ...

US regulators approve new hepatitis C drug

2011-05-13T19:30:20Z

US regulators on Friday approved the first new treatment for hepatitis C in more than a decade, a Merck pharmaceutical known as Victrelis, to be taken with the current two-drug regimen.

Also known as boceprevir, the drug is a protease inhibitor that prevents the liver-disease causing virus from multiplying and studies have shown it "significantly" boosts recovery rates, the Food and Drug Admin...

Hepatitis C cases rising among Massachusetts youth

2011-05-06T11:00:17Z

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Hepatitis C infections are rising quickly among white youth in Massachusetts, fueled by increases in the use of heroin and other injection drugs, local and federal health researchers said Thursday.

Cases of the infection -- a leading cause of liver damage and cancer -- ...

Blacks with liver cancer get fewer transplants

2011-04-29T08:00:21Z

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - African Americans with liver cancer are less likely than whites to get a transplant for the disease, according to U.S. researchers.

And that gap hasn't changed in a decade, they report in the journal Cancer.

"This treatment is expensive, high tech and on the rise -- just the kind of perfect storm that leads to a disparity in care," said study re...

FDA panel supports second new hepatitis C drug

2011-04-28T20:30:22Z

An expert panel on Thursday unanimously voted in support of a second new hepatitis C drug, Vertex Pharmaceuticals' telaprevir, which studies suggest can boost cure rates of the liver disease.

The advisory panel, which makes recommendations to the Food and Drug Administration, on Wednesday lent its ...

US panel gives nod to Merck hepatitis C drug

2011-04-27T18:30:24Z

A US government advisory committee on Wednesday unanimously voted to urge the Food and Drug Administration to approve a new drug made by Merck to fight hepatitis C, a disease which attacks the liver.

The advisory committee agreed by a vote of 18-0 that available data supports "approval of boceprevir for treatment of patients with chronic ...

US FDA panel backs Merck hepatitis drug

2011-04-27T13:00:28Z

SILVER SPRING, Maryland (Reuters) - A Merck & Co drug that boosts the chance of curing hepatitis C infection moved closer to the U.S. market on Wednesday as an advisory panel unanimously recommended approval.

The Merck drug and a rival from SILVER SPRING, Maryland (Reuters) - An experimental drug for the liver-damaging hepatitis C virus offers an advance over the current decade-old treatment that cures only a minority of patients, maker Merck & Co told a U.S. advisory panel on Wednesday.

The Merck drug, boceprevir, and a rival from

FDA backs Vertex hepatitis drug efficacy, shares jump

2011-04-26T12:00:14Z

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A hepatitis C drug from Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc cured more patients than previously reported, U.S. health reviewers said, boosting the approval chances for a pill expected to transform treatment of the liver-destroying disease that afflicts millions.

Verte...

New drug hope for hepatitis C sufferers

2011-03-30T18:30:14Z

A cocktail of three drugs, including a new class of antiviral agent, has shown encouraging results in treating hepatitis C, a disease which attacks the liver, a study said Wednesday.

"This study represents a remarkable advance and a potential cure for people with hepatitis C who have not responded to previous therapy," said co-author Stuart Gordon, from the Barcelona's French defender Eric Abidal underwent surgery "without incident" on Thursday to remove a liver tumour, the defending Spanish champions said.

Doctors at Barcelona's Hospital Clinic managed to remove the entire tumour during the operation, which lasted around three hours, it said in a statement posted on its website.

"Depending on how he evolves, the player ...

Abidal to have surgery for liver tumour - club

2011-03-15T20:30:24Z

Barcelona's France international Eric Abidal is to undergo surgery for a liver tumour, the club said late Tuesday.

The 31-year-old will undergo the operation on Friday at a Barcelona hospital, the Spanish champions announced in a brief statement on their website.

The club said: "A liver tumour has been detected in the player...

U.S. hepatitis C cases down sharply since 1980s

2011-02-15T13:00:20Z

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - New infections of the liver with hepatitis C virus are far less common these days in the U.S. compared to the early 1980s, a new government study finds.

According to the new study by researchers at the Reuters) - French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis expects European medical authorities to request it to alert doctors about possible safety risks related to its Multaq heart drug, following a similar move in the Hundreds at NY church Christmas Mass possibly exposed to hepatitis A during communion

Health officials say hundreds of people may have been exposed to hepatitis A while receiving communion on Christmas Day at a church on Long Island, N.Y.

The Nassau County Health Department said Monday it will offer vaccines this week to a...

Studies Reconfirm Significant Benefits Regarding the Use of SIR-Spheres Microspheres for the Treatment of Inoperable Liver Tumors

2010-11-30T12:37:50Z

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Inhibitex: A Biotech Gem in the Enormous Hepatitis C Market

2010-11-30T12:39:33Z

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Vertex Completes New Drug Application for Telaprevir for Hepatitis C

2010-11-29T14:35:14Z

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Cumberland Pharma Is Flying Under the Radar

2010-11-29T14:50:00Z

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World Hepatitis Day - Photocall

2010-04-07T15:00:49Z

LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 18: Ken Livingstone, former Mayor of London, poses for photographs after getting tested for Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C, to promote getting tested ahead of World Hepatitis Day 2009 (19th May 2009), on the first ever "Get Tested!" bus at Leicester Square on May 18, 2009 in NBC News shows Jeremiah, one of the octuplets Nadya Suleman gave birth to on Jan. 26, 2009. He is being treated with light for jaundice. (AP Photo/NBC NEWS)

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