Getting your player ready...
WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved a highly anticipated hepatitis C drug from Merck that is the first new treatment for the virus in 20 years.
The first-of-its-kind pill, Victrelis, has been shown to cure more patients in less time than the older drugs now used.
About 3.2 million people in the U.S. have hepatitis C, a blood-borne disease linked to 12,000 deaths a year. The current two-drug treatment for the virus cures only about 40 percent of people and causes side effects such as nausea, fatigue and vomiting.
Some patients were able to eliminate the virus in seven months on the new drug, nearly half the time needed with the current treatments alone.
