Hepatitis C (HCV) infects more than 170 million people worldwide
and is the major cause of chronic liver disease, liver cirrhosis
and primary liver cancer. HCV is also the most common cause for
liver transplantation in the United States. The Hepatitis C
virus is comprised of multiple genotypes, and significant
heterogeneity exists even within genotype subgroups. Therefore,
drug resistance is a major issue, and combinatorial drug therapy
is required for sustained efficacy. The statistics of current
treatment of HCV are sobering. The current standard of care is
combination therapy with pegylated interferon and the nucleoside
analogue ribavirin. The treatment has significant side effects,
including depression and severe flu-like symptoms from
interferon and hemolytic anemia from ribavirin. It is estimated
that less than 10% of patients in a general clinical population
can tolerate standard of care treatment to achieve a cure. To
remedy this situation, both major pharma and biotech companies
have mounted programs