Roche (SWX:ROG), InterMune, Inc. (Nasdaq: ITMN) and Pharmasset (Nasdaq: VRUS) today announced that the first patients have been dosed in an innovative clinical trial in patients chronically infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV). The trial (run in centers in Australia and New Zealand) is the first to investigate the combination of two oral antiviral molecules in the absence of interferon.