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One of the most difficult aspects of treating patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections is managing the emergence of drug-resistant virus variants. Although lamivudine (LAM) is effective for treating patients with new HBV infections, LAM resistance (LAM-R) develops at a high rate with extended therapy. Entecavir has been used in patients harboring LAM-R virus, but 9% of such patients develop entecavir resistance within 2 years. In this study, researchers evaluated the long-term efficacy of switching to adefovir or adding adefovir to LAM in patients who have developed LAM-R.
Adult patients who were HB e antigen–negative and who were participating in an ongoing trial of long-term LAM monotherapy were enrolled in this additional randomiz…