For Immediate Release
Perlegen and SC Liver Research Consortium to Collaborate on Interferon Response in Hepatitis C Patients
February 19, 2008
Mountain View, CA and San Diego, CA -- Perlegen Sciences, Inc., and the SC Liver Research Consortium (SCLRC), announced today a collaboration to discover genetic variations that predict which patients with hepatitis C (HCV) are most likely to benefit from treatment. The parties will conduct large scale genetic studies on samples from hundreds of patients with HCV who have been treated, successfully and unsuccessfully, with interferon alfa and ribavirin, the current standard of care for this disease.
The cure rate for HCV patients treated with interferon alfa and ribavirin is roughly 50%. Unfortunately, irrespective of efficacy, the treatment results in serious side effects including flu-like symptoms, fatigue, depression, fever and anemia. These symptoms dissuade a large number of patients from undergoing therapy, thus risking far more serious outcomes including progressive liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The hope of the program is that those patients with genetic signatures indicating a likelihood of positive response will be more likely to undergo treatment, despite the associated side effects.
Perlegen’s CEO, Dr. Bryan Walser, noted, “We are pleased to be working with SCLRC in this important pharmacogenomic study, which combines SCLRC’s extensive expertise in clinical hepatology with Perlegen’s expertise in identifying genetic variations. We hope the findings from this study will significantly improve outcomes for a great many patients with HCV.”
Dr. Paul J. Pockros, President of the SCLRC, added, “This is an exciting opportunity to combine the expertise of our consortium's fifty research sites with Perlegen’s skills in genetic analysis. The ability to help predict response to therapy could be a vital tool in our effort to cure hepatitis C in millions of patients infected with this virus.”
About Perlegen Sciences
Perlegen’s mission is to discover and commercialize genetic variations that can make a difference to patients and physicians. The company’s expertise is in understanding human genetic variation within and across diverse patient populations and in conducting studies aimed at identifying those variations that are predictive of drug response, both toxicity and efficacy. For more information about the company and its technologies, visit Perlegen’s website at www.perlegen.com.
About SC Liver Research Consortium
SC Liver Research Consortium (SCLRC) is an organization of physicians specializing in clinical hepatology and gastroenterology research. The consortium's mission is to team research sponsors and SCLRC's 50 research sites to provide faster, higher-quality research results than the current “conventional” sponsor-site arrangement. This is accomplished by providing streamlined contract and budget negotiations, access to scientific expertise in study design, site selection, and ongoing site evaluation. The SCLRC was formed in 1997 by a group of experienced liver/GI Hepatologists who wanted to advance the current state of liver disease research. Now a 93 member investigator team which includes Infectious Disease specialists who specialize in HIV co-infection, SCLRC has virtually eliminated the hepatitis learning curve by stepping up and authoring liver disease protocols for sponsors.
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