- Hepatitis B is the most common liver disease in the world, but there is currently no cure.
- A new study showed 20% of participants were cured of their chronic hepatitis B.
- The drug used in the study is awaiting approval from the FDA to be put on the market.
Groundbreaking advancements in hepatitis B research were published this week as a study in The New England Journal of Medicine found a potential cure for the chronic disease, which has thus far been incurable.
What is hepatitis B?
Hepatitis B is a viral infection usually contracted from exposure to infected bodily fluids, according to the Cleveland Clinic. It said hepatitis B is “the most common liver infection in the world,” affecting around 254 million people.
For some, the virus goes away without treatment. But for others, it becomes chronic and incurable.
Chronic hepatitis B can lead to permanent scarring of the liver and even liver failure. Currently, medication can only suppress the virus, which means a person still has the virus, but it won’t spread or cause other complications in the body.
Looking for a cure
Close to 2,000 patients from 29 countries participated in the study. Researchers treated some of them with 24 weekly doses of bepirovirsen, a drug that targets hepatitis B virus in DNA. There was also a placebo group, and the clinical trial was conducted twice.
All patients in the study had noncirrhotic chronic HBV infection, meaning they did not yet have permanent liver scarring.
The patients were monitored after the doses stopped to see how their bodies responded. After 72 weeks, 20% of patients from the first treatment group and 19% of patients from the second treatment group had “a functional cure” to their chronic hepatitis B. None of the patients in either placebo group were cured.
What this means
While the results are impressive considering the current lack of any cure for hepatitis B, they don’t solve every problem. Dr. Anna Lok from the University of Michigan Medical School wrote an editorial published Thursday in the same journal where she called the study “a major step toward a cure,” but not a final cure in itself.
Lok said the results are “impressive but cannot be generalized to patient groups that were not included in the trials,” like those who already have cirrhosis or liver failure.
“GlaxoSmithKline has applied to the Food and Drug Administration for approval to market the drug,” the New York Times said, and “a decision is expected by Oct. 26.”