Two local universities made their studies results public on
Thursday telling that new medication telbivudine suppresses
hepatitis B virus (HBV) better than traditional treatments.
University of Hong Kong (HKU) and Chinese University of Hong
Kong (CUHK) held a joint press conference on Thursday revealing
that telbivudine works better than commonly prescribed medicine
lamivudine and adefovir in restraining HBV.
The results of the studies done by HKU and CUHK were published
in a British medical journal New England Journal of Medicine and an
American medical journal Annals of Internal Medicine respectively
in December, 2007.
The studies included comparisons of the effectiveness between
telbivudine and lamivudine, and that between telbivudine and
adefovir. More than 1,000 hepatitis B patients joined the
studies.
According to the results, after a year of medical treatment, 60
percent of patients who were under telbivudine treatment achieved
non-detectable HBV level in blood serum; while only about 40
percent of those who had medication with lamivudine or adefovir
achieved the same level.
The results also show that, the new medicine at a price in
between the two traditional ones, was well tolerated and had only
very few side effects.
(Xinhua News Agency?January 4, 2008)