Nuc-ing HCV

One of the few positives to emerge from the HIV epidemic was the amount of research dedicated to uncovering the inner workings of infectious diseases. Indeed, just as small molecule drugs targeting viral enzymes have become the norm for treating HIV, a number of candidates against HCV viral enzymes like protease and polymerase have begun working their way through the clinic.

Nucleoside inhibitors of RNA polymerase are believed to work across all hepatitis C virus genotypes, which Pharmasset Inc. and Roche expect will provide clear advantages over approaches employing non-nucleoside polymerase and protease inhibitors. Both companies are developing oral prodrugs of nucleoside RNA polymerase inhibitors...