Alinia used to treat diarrhea, emerging as a potential treatment for hepatitis C

An experimental drug from Vertex Pharmaceuticals helped cure more than 60 percent of patients with a tough-to-treat form of hepatitis C, according to data to be presented at a medical meeting that starts today.

The results, eagerly awaited by Wall Street as well as by doctors, represent the highest cure rate yet reported for the condition — and the treatment was accomplished in half the usual time.

But Vertex might have to share a bit of the limelight with Romark Laboratories, a tiny privately held company that already sells a drug called Alinia that is used to treat diarrhea caused by certain parasites but that suddenly is emerging as a potential treatment for hepatitis C.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/02/business/02drug.html?em&ex=1194325200&en=43e7fb6a5ae22707&ei=5087

Always good to have more than one drug to choose from. One may give you bad side effects where the other one wont, or one might be more effective against the specific strain of nasties that you're infected with.

But these are still just studies. If you haven't heard more in a year or so then it didn't work out as well as they hoped. Science by press release is always dangerous. If there isn't a published study yet then it isn't real yet. Thats why the scientific and medical community appears so fickle lately is because people have started a tradition of making a press release as soon as they think they understand the data they are collecting and not waiting for the study to be finished and accepted for publication. So you hear a LOT of things in the news which aren't actually of a quality that would be them published and accepted.

Not to suggest that these current studies would fall into that category, but the article doesn't make it sound like all the data is in yet to me.

Never make investments are plans for medical treatment on the basis of these press releases!

true enough... one difference is Alinia is already an approved drug.

they just can't market it to treat Hepatitis C.