Given the suboptimal efficacy, side effects, and cost of interferon-based therapy for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection -- especially in hard-to-treat patients such as those with HCV genotype 1 and prior non-responders -- investigators are exploring several new drugs that directly target various steps of the viral lifecycle. These small molecule agents are collectively referred to as "STAT-C."

Data on several STAT-C agents in the development pipeline were reported at the 59th Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD 2008) this week in San Francisco.

Findings from the SPRINT-1 study of Schering-Plough's HCV protease inhibitor boceprevir were reported previously.

Data on several other directly targeted agents will be reported in the next 2 issues of HIVandHepatitis.com (Tuesday, November 11 and Friday, November 14). These will include:

• Vertex HCV protease inhibitor telaprevir (VX-950);
• Intermune/Roche HCV protease inhibitor ITMN-191 (R7227);
• Tibotec HCV protease inhibitor TMC435;
• Boehringer-Ingelheim HCV protease inhibitor BI 201335;
• Merck HCV protease inhibitor MK-7009;
• Pfizer HCV polymerase inhibitor PF-00868554;