Historic ruling now officially recognizes HBV infection as a protected disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
What a difference two years make. In 2011 the Hepatitis B Foundation celebrated its 20th anniversary and we were ready to rest awhile on our laurels after working so hard. But instead, we rallied for new challenges and now we have a lot to celebrate in 2013! Continue reading "Re-energized in Our Mission … A Message from Joan Block of HBF"
HBF is pleased to connect our blog readers to Christine Kukka’s monthly HBV Journal Review that she writes for the HBV Advocate. The journal presents the latest in hepatitis B research, treatment, and prevention from recent academic and medical journals. This month, the following topics are explored: Continue reading "HBV Journal Review – December 2013"
Great news from the 2013 AASLD Liver Meeting regarding a new, lower-dose formulation of Tenofovir for the treatment of hepatitis B
From HIVandHepatitis.com
Published Thursday, 21 November 2013 00:00Written by Liz Highleyman
A new formulation of tenofovir that can be taken at lower doses demonstrated potent activity against hepatitis B virus (HBV) similar to that of the existing formulation in a 28-day study, but with less effect on kidney function, researchers reported at the 64thAASLD Liver Meeting this month in Washington, DC. Continue reading "Tenofovir Alafenamide Shows Similar Anti-HBV Activity with Less Kidney Toxicity"
— Christine M. Kukka, Project Manager, HBV Advocate
A new study suggests for the first time that the combination of the hepatitis B vaccine and HBIG (hepatitis B immune globulin) may be ineffective in preventing “occult” hepatitis B in babies born to mothers infected with the hepatitis B virus (HBV). An occult infection occurs when a person tests negative for the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)—considered an essential antigen building block for HBV—while testing positive for HBV DNA. When this occult infection occurs, researchers suspect the HBsAg has somehow mutated so conventional lab tests can’t identify it. Continue reading "Study Suggests Vaccine and HBIG Ineffective at Preventing “Occult” Hepatitis B in Babies Born to Infected Mothers"
Published on Monday, 11 November 2013
Written by Liz Highleyman
HIVandHepatitis.com
A dual regimen of entecavir (Baraclude) plus tenofovir (Viread) for 48 weeks led to virological response and was generally well-tolerated as second-line therapy for chronic hepatitis B patients who had failed previous nucleoside/nucleotide treatment, according to a poster presentation at the 64th AASLD Liver Meeting last week in Washington, DC. Continue reading "Entecavir + Tenofovir Works Well for Hepatitis B Patients with Prior Treatment Failure"
Harnessing the Power of RNAi Gene Silencing in a Quest of a Cure for Chronic Hepatitis B, and the HBV KnockDown blog written by Dirk Haussecker, who believes it’s about time everyone got serious about a functional cure for hepatitis B.
As I was reading the latest PK-PD study by Gilead on its lead experimental chronic HepB drug candidate GS-9620 (Fosdick et al. 2013), it finally dawned on me that much-touted GS-9620 has been designed to be nothing more than a better tolerated, more convenient version of an already existing treatment option, recombinant interferon. GS-9620 is therefore an example of the typical incrementalist Big Pharma value creation strategy. By contrast, if successful, an HBsAg knockdown approach such as with Arrowhead’s ARC520 would bring to healthcare providers and patients an entirely new, desperately needed treatment option as the field has become stuck with interferons and RT inhibitors for years. Continue reading "Gilead Lead Chronic HepB Candidate GS-9620 Conceived as a More Patient-Friendly Interferon"
HBF is pleased to connect our blog readers to Christine Kukka’s monthly HBV Journal Review that she writes for the HBV Advocate. The journal presents the latest in hepatitis B research, treatment, and prevention from recent academic and medical journals. This month, the following topics are explored:
Posted in Science World Report, October 17, 2013
A recent study looks at a form of hepatitis B that is only found in men and may explain higher rates for certain types of cancer.
According to a team of researchers from Seoul National University in Korea, they identified a mutation from the hepatitis B virus that seems to appear only in men and may explain why HBV-infected males are roughly five times more likely than HBV-infected women to develop certain types of liver cancer. Continue reading "Hepatitis B Mutation Seen in Only Men, Increased Risk of Liver Cancer"
Coffee consumption reduces risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common type of liver cancer, by about 40 percent, according to an up-to-date meta-analysis published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. Further, some data indicate that three cups of coffee per day reduce liver cancer risk by more than 50 percent.
Posted in Science Daily, October 22, 2013
Harnessing the Power of RNAi Gene Silencing in Quest of a Cure for Chronic Hepatitis B, and the HBV KnockDown blog written by Dirk Haussecker, who believes it’s about time everyone got serious about a functional cure for hepatitis B.
If you did not appreciate the value the pharmaceutical industry has come to place on the HBsAg knockdown concept for achieving a functional cure for chronic Hepatitis B (HBV) infection, the last two days will have woken you up.
Yesterday, ISIS Pharmaceuticals reported that it had received a $7M milestone payment related to the development of an antiviral RNaseH development candidate (ISIS-GSK3Rx, aka ISIS-HBVRx) which, although undisclosed for competitive reasons, has got to be for HBV. And today, Tekmira publicly announced that they will file an IND for an HBV-RNAi candidate in 2014 while hinting at the partnering potential of such a treatment candidate.
Arrowhead Research is thus not alone in their efforts any more. Coincidentally, Arrowhead reported today the completion of their enrollment of the phase I single-dose, healthy volunteer study with ARC520, their DPC-delivered candidate for chronic HBV. Accordingly, the dose escalation was able to run through all the pre-planned 6 dose cohorts up to the top dose of 2.0mg/kg.
Apparently, there were no signs of significant dose-related toxicities. The only finding of concern among the 36 volunteers, 24 of which received drug, was 2 cases of lightheadedness of uncertain clinical relevance. As these occurred at the highest dose, it seems that the company suspects that it could have been drug-related although the study remains blinded for follow-up.
A dose of 2mg/kg without any serious adverse events or dose-limiting toxicities is a great start for DPC delivery technology. This is especially the case when one considers that the single-molecule subQ version of DPC that I hope will form the basis for the upcoming pipeline candidates, except for the next one perhaps, will be much more potent than the two-molecule version of intravenously delivered ARC520 based on the non-human primate data presented at last year’s OTS meeting.
With 2mg/kg of ARC520, I further believe that HBsAg knockdowns of over 90% are likely. The biggest challenge going forward with this program will be setting a knockdown goal and getting the dose and dose frequency right.
