Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

Re: HCV cocktails

>??Who cares whether [HCV] is integrated into the genome or not????<

????
Non-integration means that you merely have to control the virion count, not the count of infected cells.

>The point is that if any virus remains after a drug cocktail it is likely to be a virus that is genetically adapted to be somewhat invisible to the immune system while still being able to reproduce moderately quickly (because that was what 99.9% of the virus was at the start of treatment).<

What does somewhat invisible mean?

On second thought, I’m not sure I care what it means insofar as your argument strikes me as superfluous to the issue at hand.

If a normal immune system can kill the HCV virions as fast as the virions are reproduced, thereby keeping the viral load at an extremely low level, the patient is effectively cured, barring degradation to the patient’s immune system from something unrelated to the HCV infection. From a practical standpoint, holding the virus at such a low level is as good as total eradication of the virus for almost all patients.