Hepatitis C treatment developers combine studies

Officials from Romark Laboratories, a biopharmaceutical company, and Intercell AG, a biotechnology corporation, recently announced that they will combine their current research to develop therapy treatments for patients who have hepatitis C (HCV). The partnership is slated to take place at the beginning of 2011.

Intercell's drug is an injected vaccination called IC41, and is currently in its second phase of research, which may reduce the growth of the infection. Nitazoxanide, a medication created by Romark, has been developed to temporarily suppress the sexually transmitted disease (STD) from spreading throughout the body.

An estimated 60 patients with HCV will be enrolled in the combined research project, which will be split into three different parts and take place over the course of 24 weeks. At the beginning of the study, participants will receive both drugs, followed by using the companies' treatments and Pegasys, which is a type of HCV treatment.

During the last portion of the research, patients will receive IC41, Nitazoxanide, Pegasys and Copegus, a current hepatitis C drug that will be used as a control therapy.

Jean-Francois Rossignol, chairman and chief science officer at Romark, stated that "we are excited about this novel therapeutic approach for chronic hepatitis C." He added that this partnership "addresses [the] need and promises to change paradigms for therapy of chronic hepatitis C."