HORMONES AND CYTOKINES: Interferon/Albumin Treat Hepatitis C

Applied Genetics News,  April, 2001  

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Human Genome Sciences, Inc. (HGSI) (9410 Key West Ave., Rockville, MD 20850; Tel: 301/309-8504, Fax: 301/309-8512) has begun a Phase I human clinical trial of Albuferon in patients infected with Hepatitis C. Albuferon is created by fusing human interferon alpha to another human protein, serum albumin. Based on preclinical studies, Albuferon should provide patients with a longer-acting therapeutic activity and may offer an improved side-effect profile when compared to the current first-line therapy, recombinant human interferon alpha.

"Hepatitis C is a significant public health problem in both developed and developing countries," says David C. Stump, senior vice president, Drug Development. "A need exists for more effective and better tolerated treatments that will allow patients to avoid the long-term liver damage associated with this serious and insidious disease." Hepatitis C virus-caused liver inflammation is transmitted by body fluids and affects 170 million people worldwide, or 3% of the world's population, including 1.8% of the U.S. population.

"Initiation of a clinical trial of Albuferon is demonstration that the new technology acquired by the purchase of Principia last year is fruitful," says William Haseltine, chairman and CEO of HGSI. "The technology allows us to create and to manufacture new and hopefully substantially improved versions of approved biotherapeutic proteins."

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COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group