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In the absence of curative therapy, the goal of treating chronic hepatitis B is to achieve viral suppression, which has been correlated with serologic, histologic, and biochemical responses. Which drug is more effective in meeting this goal: tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (DF), which was recently approved by the FDA for treatment of chronic hepatitis B, or the older antiviral adefovir dipivoxil?
To find out, the maker of tenofovir recently sponsored two phase III, randomized, double-blind trials; one involved 375 hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-negative patients, and the other involved 266 HBeAg-positive patients. In both trials, patients received a 48-week course of either 300 mg of tenofovir DF daily or 10 mg of adefovir dipivoxil daily. The …