Loading...
When choosing agents to treat patients with chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, clinicians must consider the agent’s ability to suppress the virus long term as well as its safety, tolerability, and resistance profiles. Lamivudine, although not considered to be first-line therapy, is the most widely prescribed anti-HBV agent worldwide, despite the fact that it engenders high rates of resistance. Might telbivudine be a better anti-HBV agent in terms of safety and resistance profile?
In a manufacturer-sponsored, double-blind, multicenter trial, researchers enrolled 1367 HBV-positive patients with no history of HBV treatment. Inclusion criteria included detectable hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) l…