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Five drugs — interferon, peginterferon, lamivudine, adefovir, and entecavir — are approved in the U.S. for treating patients with chronic hepatitis B. Results of two new industry-sponsored studies add to our understanding of treatment outcomes.
The first study is a continuation of a previously published randomized trial in which 185 patients with hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)–negative infections received adefovir or placebo. After the first 48 weeks of treatment, 51% of adefovir recipients and 0% of placebo recipients had undetectable serum HBV DNA (Journal Watch Mar 7 2003). In this continuation study, patients in the adefovir group were assigned randomly to continue adefovir or to switch to placebo for an additional 48 weeks. Among patient…