Chronic hepatitis B remains a significant global health burden, affecting 296 million people worldwide and causing approximately 1.1 million deaths annually. Despite the availability of current antiviral therapies, functional cure—defined as sustained hepatitis B surface antigen loss—remains elusive, achieved in fewer than 5 percent of treated patients.
A phase 3 trial of bepirovirsen, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, addresses this critical treatment gap through antisense oligonucleotide technology that targets viral RNA rather than simply suppressing replication. By focusing on hepatitis B surface antigen reduction, the therapy offers a mechanistically distinct approach to achieving sustained virologic response. These findings underscore the urgent clinical need for transformative treatments that can deliver functional cure to the millions of patients for whom conventional therapies have proven insufficient.
Read the full article on GMJ Newsroom.
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