Emory seeks patent on Hepatitis C treatment

Emory University is seeking to patent a new treatment for Hepatitis C, an illness that has infected more than 180 million people worldwide and causes more than half of all liver cancer cases.

According to the patent application made public Aug. 15, there's an urgent need for new Hepatitis C virus drugs. "It would be advantageous to provide new antiviral agents, compositions including these agents, and methods of treatment using these agents, particularly to treat HCV and drug-resistant HCV.

The present invention provides such agents, compositions and methods," the patent application says.

The inventors include Steven J. Coats, Franck Amblard, Hongwang Zhang, Longhu Zhou, Richard Anthony Whitaker, Tamara Rosario McBrayer, Raymond F. Schinazi and Junxing Shi.

Schinazi is a renowned Emory research who founded Pharmasset Inc. and RFS Pharma LLC. Pharmasset, which develops Hepatitis C drugs, was bought by Gilead Sciences in November 2011 for $11 billion.

Schinazi's newer company, Tucker, Ga.-based RFS Pharma, is a co-assignee of the Hepatitis C patent along with Emory.

To read the full patent application, click here.

Original Story