Researchers Work Around Hepatitis Drug Patent

Several readers let us know about a pair of British researchers who found a workaround to patents covering drugs used to treat hepatitis C. The developers intend to produce a drug cheap enough to supply to people in the poorest parts of the world. The scientists found another way to bind a sugar to interferon, producing a drug they say should be as long-lasting and effective as those sold (at $14,000 for a year's supply) by patent holders Hoffman-La Roche and Schering Plough. Clinical trials could begin by 2008. The article quotes developer Sunil Shaunak of Imperial College London: "We in academic medicine can either choose to use our ideas to make large sums of money for small numbers of people, or to look outwards to the global community and make affordable medicines."

Re:Thumbs up!

[MidVicious]

In Soviet Russia, drugs patent you!

Thanks for the assist ;)

In further news...

[Ritontor]

Hoffman-La Roche and Schering Plough released a statement today. It reads as follows:

"FUCK!"

Slashdot headlines

[urbanradar]

Looking at the Slashdot frontpage right now, among the stories I see are: "Researchers Work Around Hepatitis Drug Patent", "Wal-Mart Is Pushing Compact Fluorescent Bulbs", "Month of Apple Fixes", "MySQL Falcon Storage Engine Open Sourced", "Creating Prion-Free Cows". Maybe it's just my morning coffee making me optimistic, but it seems to me there's not usually this much positive news on Slashdot! Almost gives you hope for 2007, that does.

Re:yes, you are

[Anonymous Coward]

The makers of Viagra are advertising on Wheel of Fortune? That's the show with the roulette looking wheel? (threw out the TV years ago) Lets see, Viagra, Wheel of Fortune, roulette,,,, something Freudian here but I can't quite slip into it, maybe I am just Russian things.

Re:Patent ruling is waste of resources

[Jzor]

World of Warcraft?