TAIPEI, Taiwan -- National TaiwanUniversity Hospital (NTUH) yesterday announced that it is cooperatingwith a pharmaceutical factory to develop a new medicine aimed at curinghepatitis B virus carriers, noting that the medicine may be completedby as early as 2015. Taiwan University College of Medicine professor and Academia Sinicamember Chen Ding-shinn (陳定信) said current medications used to treathepatitis only stop the virus from reproducing.
“Thecooperation between the NTUH and the pharmaceutical factory will focuson curing hepatitis B virus carriers,” Chen said, “and ensure theeffectiveness and safety of the new medicine.”
“Results in thedevelopment phase of the new medicine have so far been positive, whichmeans hepatitis B could be completely cured in the future. However, itmight take longer to get the new medicine on the market,” said Chen.
Chen Pei-jer (陳培哲), a professor at National Taiwan University Collegeof Medicine Graduate Institute of Clinic Medicine, said the greatestchallenge so far for researchers of hepatitis B treatment is thatcurrent medicines only restrain the virus instead of killing it.
“According to initial research,” Chen Pei-jer said, “a certain compound has the ability to wipe out the hepatitis B virus.”
Chen Pei-jer said that the NTUH has a great hepatitis B evaluationsystem and database while the pharmaceutical factory can provide ahepatitis B medicine that is different, so in light of this thecooperation represents a great opportunity to develop a new medicinethat will benefit hepatitis B virus carriers.
According tostatistics from the Bureau of National Health Insurance (NHI), thereare around 2.4 million hepatitis B virus carriers in Taiwan and atleast 12,000 people die from liver disease annually.
The NHI'sstatistics also showed that liver disease medicine was the best-sellingmedicine in Taiwan last year and the annual cost of medicine to treathepatitis B is NT$2 billion.
Chen Ding-shinn noted thatalthough hepatitis B vaccines started 29 years ago, there remain manyhepatitis B virus carriers in Taiwan that should receive treatment.
Through the free screening provided by the Bureau of Health Promotion,Chen Ding-shinn said, more hepatitis B virus carriers can receiveregular checkups as part of decreasing the risks related to sufferingfrom liver cancer. 作者: certainn 时间: 2013-10-27 22:11
