Word: chiron
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Hepatitis C afflicts an estimated 150,000 Americans each year. The virus, like type B, is spread primarily by sexual activity and through tainted blood in transfusions or on addicts' dirty needles. (Hepatitis A is passed along mainly through contaminated foods.) Researchers at Chiron Corp., a biotechnology firm in Emeryville, Calif., that first identified the C virus, have devised a test for the pathogen that can be used to screen the blood supply...
This last major threat in the U.S. blood supply may soon be greatly reduced. After six years of research, scientists at Chiron, a genetic-engineering firm in Emeryville, Calif., have developed a test for the presence of a non-A, non- B hepatitis virus in blood samples. According to papers published last week in the journal Science, trials have shown that Chiron's test is highly reliable. It can now help eliminate the virus from the blood supply. The inexpensive test (about $2 per blood sample) is expected to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration this year...
...Chiron's initial breakthrough was to isolate a viral protein from blood samples taken from patients with non-A, non-B hepatitis. By cloning large quantities of the protein, the company was able to develop a test to detect its presence in blood. Chiron called the pathogen the "hepatitis-C virus." In clinical studies done at the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and laboratories in Italy and Japan, blood samples from patients thought to have non-A, non-B hepatitis were screened using Chiron's test. At least 80% of the samples tested positive...
...Chiron appears to have done it again. Capping more than five years of intensive detective work, the company announced last week that it had isolated and cloned proteins from the last major hepatitis virus to elude detection: a blood-borne infectious agent that is known as hepatitis non-A, non-B. The virus strikes about 5% of the 4 million Americans who undergo blood transfusions each year, and it causes a range of symptoms from fatigue to chronic liver disease...
...Chiron's discovery, if verified, could be both a medical breakthrough and an economic boon, because it could lead to a simple laboratory test for the presence of the virus. The company thinks such a test, which would have a ready market at blood banks and hospitals, could generate sales of up to $90 million a year in the U.S. alone. Chiron is looking for a vaccine but warns that the search could take several years...