STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Two American and one British-born scientist won the 2020 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for work in identifying the Hepatitis C virus, which causes cirrhosis and liver cancer, the award-giving body said on Monday.
“Prior to their work, the discovery of the Hepatitis A and B viruses had been critical steps forward,” the Nobel Assembly at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute said in a statement on awarding the prize of 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.1 million).
“The discovery of Hepatitis C virus revealed the cause of the remaining cases of chronic hepatitis and made possible blood tests and new medicines that have saved millions of lives.”
(Reporting by Simon Johnson; additional reporting by Niklas Pollard, Johannes Hellstrom, Supantha Mukherjee and Anna Ringstrom; Editing by Hugh Lawson)