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3. The Scientific Steering Committee’s five examples of diseases of concern

Posted: 13 July 2007

(d) Hepatitis

SSC: “Hepatitis C cannot be cultured”.

ADI Response:

• This is no longer correct. A recent paper reported partial progress, which has resulted in some techniques that can be implemented. The paper concluded that “ …continued effort is required to provide a complete in vitro HCV model: a reliable, efficient cell culture system supporting HCV infection”56.

SSC: “The only other species other than man that can be infected is the chimpanzee”.

• ADI: Yet, there are key species differences. Persistent infection rates differ between chimps and humans, with 30-40% and 85% respectively. Fibrosis and cirrhosis, commonly found in humans, are not present in chimps. Another factor critical to disease progression is the fact that chimpanzees do not drink alcohol. It is deemed unethical to place animals on prolonged high alcohol diets57.

SSC: “NHP research is essential to bring a truly effective vaccine to the clinic”.

• ADI: Fialuridine, a Hepatitis B vaccine, killed 5 people and caused serious illness in others even though it was tested on dogs, rats and monkeys. A review found that “…unfortunately, there is nothing to indicate that other laboratory animal studies would have been more appropriate or capable of better prediction of the fatal outcome”58.

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