TUESDAY, Sep. 24, 2002 (HealthDayNews) --
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a new drug therapy for treatment of the liver-destroying condition hepatitis B.
The new drug, whose generic name is adefovir dipivoxil, will be sold as Hepsera. The dosage is one tablet daily. Research has shown that liver cirrhosis was improved in between 56 percent and 66 percent of patients tested.
Hepsera is an alternative to the only other two hepatitis B drugs on the market, interferon and lamivudine - - patients can become resistant to one of the drugs, and the other can cause side effects that some can't tolerate.
Once contracted, Hepatitis B is a stubborn viral infection that usually stays with a person his or her entire life. Most of the 1.25 million Americans who have Hepatitis B got the condition in childhood, when vaccinations weren't available.
Hepsera's maker, Gilead Sciences Inc., says it expects to begin shipping the drug to distribution points in October.
Here is the FDA Talk Paper announcing the approval.
And this page from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers an excellent Hepatitis B fact sheet.
