Abstract: 350 million people worldwide carry the hepatitis B virus and 170 million the hepatitis C virus. There has been encouraging progress in recent years in the management of both infections. The combination of pegylated interferon alpha and ribavirin is perhaps the most effective treatment today. ... Read more

A U.S. FDA panel voted unanimously on Aug. 6th to recommend the approval of Gilead Sciences’ (Foster City, Calif.) drug Adefovir to treat hepatitis B infection.

The drug was originally developed as an anti-HIV product and was rejected in 1999 by an FDA panel chiefly due to concerns of its side effects on the kidney.

Around 350 million people worldwide, mainly in developing countries such as China and about 1.25 million people in the USA are chronically infected with the hepatitis B virus. Due to the virus’s ability to go latent and integrate its genome into the host cell counterpart, the immune ... Read more