New Hepatitis B drug hope

Clinical trials of a new drug called telbivudine have suggested that it is able to suppress the hepatitis B virus quicker and more effectively than other treatments.

The disease, which targets the liver, puts chronically infected people at high risk of death from cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer, and kills approximately one million people around the world every year, according to statistics from the World Health Organisation.

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine revealed that eight per cent more people responded to telbivudine than a standard course of lamivudine, and that telbivudine was able to reduce the amount of the virus in the bloodstream much quicker.

After 52 weeks, those on telbivudine had ten times lower levels of the virus in every millilitre of their blood compared to those taking lamivudine.

"The multiple therapeutic choices now available for hepatitis B will enhance the ability of clinicians to maintain long-term control of HBV replication, ultimately improving clinical outcomes for more patients. These results support telbivudine as an effective therapy for patients with chronic hepatitis B," the authors wrote.

Although hepatitis B can be vaccinated against, up to 40 per cent of those suffering from chronic infection will eventually die of liver cancer or cirrhosis.

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