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Disease
Areas of Focus
 Hepatitis
Hepatitis
B and C are the most significant forms of this frequently fatal
disease of the liver. The most common of all serious liver infections,
Hepatitis B, kills approximately 1 million people a year. Of
the more than 2 billion people infected globally, about 400 million
are thought to have chronic hepatitis B virus, which can cause
cirrhosis and liver cancer.1
Globally,
an estimated 170 million persons are chronically infected with
hepatitis C, and approximately 3 to 4 million persons are newly
infected each year.2 Like chronic hepatitis B, chronic hepatitis
C viral infection can lead to serious complications such as cirrhosis
and liver cancer and can necessitate the need for liver transplantation.
While
scientists have developed some effective therapies in recent
years for hepatitis B and C, significant unmet medical needs
still exist as a result of problems related to potency, resistance,
and tolerability. Recognizing the important unmet medical needs,
Bristol-Myers Squibb is working to provide new treatments for
both forms of this very widespread, highly infectious disease.
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to Disease Areas
1. “Hepatitis
B Statistics,” The Hepatitis B Foundation, 2006.
2. “Hepatitis C,” Fact Sheet Number 164, The World
Health Organization, 2006. |
