It was a testament to the power of the biotechnolo

It was a testament to the power of the biotechnology industry”

“I tried to get back to sleep, but in the end I gave up!” So began Michael Houghton’s day after being called by a friend who had just heard news of his Nobel Prize at 3am in Alberta, Canada.

As he tells Adam Smith in this brief interview for nobelprize.org, recorded early that morning, cloning the Hepatitis C virus took a frustratingly long time, which he measured by watching the construction of large buildings on his drive into work each day: “I think they had to erect about 10 hotels before we finally found it!” Despite the marvellous success in developing drugs that can cure almost everybody, Houghton reminds us that Hepatitis C is a pandemic, which still kills around 400,000 people every year.