2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

The 2020 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice. The prize was announced by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm on 5 October 2020.

The citation

The citation reads: "for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus". They share the prize equally.

The laureates

Harvey J. Alter was born in 1935 in New York, the United States, and is affiliated with National Institutes of Health, Bethesda. Michael Houghton was born in 1949 in United Kingdom, and is affiliated with the University of Alberta, Edmonton. Charles M. Rice was born in 1952 in Sacramento, the United States, and is affiliated with the Rockefeller University, New York.

Why it matters

The discovery of the hepatitis C virus made it possible to screen blood and develop drugs that can cure the infection. Houghton was born in Britain and works in Canada.

The prize

The prize is worth 10 million Swedish kronor, divided between the laureates. It will be presented at a ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite whose will founded the prizes in 1895.