Janssen Pharmaceuticals has signed a collaboration agreement with the National Taiwan University (NTU) and the university’s hospital (NTUH) to cooperate on developing new drugs for treating hepatitis B. Despite the high success rate of viral suppression achieved by existing medications, the virus is currently incurable.
Chen Ding-shinn (陳定信), chair professor at National Taiwan University Medical College, said that there are more than 350 million people in the world infected with the hepatitis B virus (HBV), 60 to 70 percent of which are in Asia.
Every year, more than 600 thousand people die as a result of complications such as liver cirrhosis and liver cancer caused by the virus.
“HBV can be transmitted prenatally [from mother to child] or by having contact with an infected person. While less than 3 percent of adults infected with the virus develop chronic hepatitis, more than 90 percent of infected newborns do,” Chen said. “Those who have chronic or persistent hepatitis B are at a high risk of developing liver cirrhosis or liver cancer later in life.”
There are about 2.4 million HBV carriers in Taiwan, Chen said, adding that statistics in 2011 showed that deaths attributable to liver cancer ranked No. 2 on the list of leading causes of death for men and women.
“Eighty percent to 90 percent of liver cancer patients had chronic hepatitis B,” he said.
“However, after Taiwan started vaccinating newborns against HBV in 1984, the number of yearly infections has decreased,” Chen said.
While the nation’s vaccination plan is an effective prevention measure, “having better control over the source of infection is still out of reach. Interferon, an approved medication for treating HBV infections is effective in only one-third of patients, while another treatment, nucleoside analogue therapy, inhibits viral replication without completely eliminating the virus.”
The collaboration is intended to develop a treatment to tackle the disease, Jansen, NTU and NTUH said in a joint statement.
Chen Pei-jer (陳培哲), a professor at the Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine in NTUH’s Medical College and the principal investigator of the collaboration, said the aim is to “accelerate the development of a new hepatitis B drug by combining the resources uniquely held by the respective partners.”
“NTU has been working in this research field for more than 50 years. NTU’s specialization and experience makes it peerless in the fields of drug research and development,” Chen Pei-jer said.
“Janssen has a large collection of compounds as drug candidates. They need a platform to see whether the candidates are safe and effective,” Chen Pei-jer added.
From the mouse model first established by the NTU research team for assaying anti-viral and immune-modulatory activity — an important indication of HBV eradication — and the woodchuck model, which demonstrates HBV activity most similar to that of human HBV, to recent clinical research, Taiwan has always been a leader in the field of HBV treatment, Chen Pei-jer said, adding that NTU’s research was “a complete line from bench to bedside and back.”
“We are aiming to take the lead in developing a new drug to fully eradicate HBV,” the lead investigator said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS