HCV: The Journey from Discovery to a Cure (eBook)

?Hepatitis C is a liver disease caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) and infects approximately 75 million individuals worldwide. It is also one of the major causes of liver cancer and liver transplants. The elucidation of the HCV genome, and the development of a whole cell system to study the virus spurred the search for novel direct acting antiviral drugs to cure this disease. This global effort culminated in the development of direct acting antiviral drugs that led to cure rates approaching 100% in all patient populations after only 8-12 weeks of therapy. These efforts resulted in one of the greatest achievements in public health and provides the potential for eliminating HCV as a major disease worldwide.

Michael J. Sofia, Ph.D. is currently Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder at Arbutus Biopharma, Inc., a company focused on the discovery and development of therapies to treat hepatitis B. He also holds a professorship at the Baruch S. Blumberg Institute and an Adjunct Professorship at the Drexel University School of Medicine. 

Previously, Mike Sofia was Senior Vice President of Chemistry and Senior Advisor at Gilead Sciences and was Sr. Vice President of Chemistry at Pharmasset, Inc until Pharmasset's acquisition by Gilead in Jan 2012.

Mike Sofia previously held research and research management positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Intercardia Research Labs (formerly Transcell Technologies) and  Eli Lilly & Co. He did his postdoctoral training in synthetic organic chemistry as an NIH fellow at Columbia University and received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.  He earned his B.A. degree in chemistry from Cornell University.

Mike has introduced numerous drugs into clinical development for the treatment of infectious diseases and inflammatory diseases. He is the principle inventor of sofosbuvir (Sovaldiâ and Harvoniâ) currently marketed as a treatment for the cure of HCV infection.  Mike is the recipient of numerous awards including the 2015 ACS Heroes of Chemistry Award, the Economist Magazine's 2015 Innovation Award in Biosciences, the 2016 IUPAC-Richter Prize, the 2016 Lasker-Debakey Award in Clinical Medical Research and the 2017 Gertrude Elion Award from the International Society for Antiviral Research.