Hepatitis C virus (HCV) has chronically infected an estimated 170 million people worldwide. People infected with HCV are at risk for developing chronic liver diseases, such as liver cirrhosis and primary hepatocellular carcinoma. It has been estimated that HCV accounts for 27% of cirrhosis and 25% of hepatocellular carcinoma worldwide. Therapy for chronically HCV-infected patients has involved a pegylated interferon-alpha and ribavirin (pegIFN/RBV) and is still the only FDA-approved therapeutic combination. However, this therapy is expensive, non-specific, toxic, and only effective in about 50% of genotype-1 HCV patients.