B drug bepirovirsen achieves functional cure in 20%

Researchers have reported that a first-of-its-kind drug for chronic hepatitis B has enabled a significant minority of patients to stop all treatment without signs of the dangerous liver virus, a state known as a functional cure. The findings, presented Thursday at a scientific meeting in Barcelona and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, represent a potential major advance against a disease that kills about 1.1 million people globally each year.

The drug, bepirovirsen, is an experimental weekly injection developed by GSK and Ionis Pharmaceuticals. In two large international studies involving 1,838 patients, approximately one in five recipients of the drug achieved a functional cure. This was defined as the virus remaining undetectable for six months after patients stopped both the experimental shots and their standard antiviral pills. No patients who received a placebo shot achieved this outcome.

Chronic hepatitis B is a serious liver infection spread through contact with blood or bodily fluids. While a vaccine can prevent it, an estimated 1.7 million people in the United States and more than 250 million worldwide live with the chronic form. Current standard...