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October 2006 (Medialink) -- The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new treatment for chronic hepatitis B virus—a virus that is 50 to 100 times more infectious than HIV and affects nearly 350 million people worldwide. The new treatment, known as Tyzeka, is a once-daily tablet that can be taken with or without food to lower the amount of hepatitis B virus circulating in the bloodstream. It has been shown that the faster a patient's hepatitis B virus levels are reduced, the more likely he or she is to have better results at one year of treatment. In the phase III registration trial, 56 percent of all Tyzeka-treated patients achieved undetectable levels of virus in the first 24 weeks of treatment, and in 95 percent of those patients, the virus remained undetectable at one year. Chronic Hepatitis B Facts Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) affects nearly 350 million people worldwide In the U.S., there are nearly 1.25 million people with chronic HBV infection. There is no cure for CHB. HBV in Asians and Pacific Islanders Asians and Pacific Islanders are more likely to suffer from HBV infections. One in 10 Asians and Pacific Islanders is chronically infected with hepatitis B, compared to one in 1,000 people in the general population HBV transmission in Asian and Pacific Islanders frequently occurs during birth, when the virus is passed on from an infected mother, who is often unaware that she is a carrier. Once infected, 90 percent of infants will become chronic HBV carriers. ------------------------------------------------------------ -------------------- Produced for Idenix/Novartis

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