The drugs aim either to boost immune response or to attack and inactivate the viral enzymes that hepatitis C uses to replicate, in much the same way that AIDS drugs attack that virus.

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Some doctors had reported positive results using ribavirin, an anti-viral medicine used mostly against hepatitis C, as a treatment for SARS patients who had been worst-hit by the disease in Hong Kong and elsewhere.

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The company has tried to create new enthusiasm with with efforts to expand into hepatitis C, the viral liver disease that is looking like the next big drug market, and into other areas such as heart disease, cystic fibrosis, and pulmonary arterial hypertension.

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Wall Street is bracing for one of the biggest new drug categories in a decade: the launch of a series of antiviral medicines that could dramatically improve the cure rate for hepatitis C, a viral disease that slowly attacks the liver and is often fatal.

FORBES

Overall, the main benefit of this new class of hepatitis C treatments is the improvement in sustained viral load or SVR, according to the docs surveyed.

FORBES: The Hepatitis C Wars: What Docs Say About The Newest Meds

In justifying his strong buy rating on the company, Carl Byrns at Dain Rauscher Wessels points to an anti-viral drug: Peg-intron plus ribavirin combination therapy for Hepatitis C.

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Though all types of viral hepatitis are associated with serious health issues, hepatitis B and C can become chronic infections that often lead to liver cirrhosis or liver cancer.

WHITEHOUSE: Presidential Proclamation -- World Hepatitis Day, 2012

Hepatitis -- the most common types being hepatitis A, B and C -- refers to inflammation or viral infections of one's liver.

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