Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

The paper you cited describes the genetic changes to the HCV virus before it turns into a chronic infection. In other words, these changes will already have occurred by the time anyone seeks treatment, regardless of the treatment regimen employed.

>So without something to tune the immune system to the virus it would seem likely that relapse would be common.<

This thinking is unduly binary on your part, IMO—as though the only issue were whether the HCV virus is present or is not present. Such a viewpoint is justified for HBV and HIV, which integrate into the host genome, but it not justified for HCV, which does not.

In short, I don’t see how the research you cited advances the thesis that a normal, healthy immune system cannot avert relapse when the level of HCV virus has been rendered de minimis.