BioChem Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ: BCHE;
TSE: BCH) announced that new Zeffix data were presented today at the
European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) Congress, in
Prague, the
Czech Republic.
One in four of the many millions of children worldwide who become
chronically infected with the hepatitis B virus (HBV) during early
childhood, will go on to die from
liver cancer or
cirrhosis of the liver in
adulthood as a result of the infection. This statistic could soon become
a thing of the past, according to exciting new research presented at the
EASL Congress.
The study’s results show that a year’s treatment with Zeffix
(lamivudine), induces a complete virologic response (CVR), a good
indicator that the virus has been effectively suppressed, in almost a
quarter (23%) of children suffering from the disease. These children
were therefore able to stop treatment. This was significantly better than
the placebo group, where only 13% achieved the same outcome. The
result is similar to that observed after one year’s treatment in adults
suffering from chronic hepatitis B, where Zeffix is already an established
treatment. Data in adults have shown that the number of patients who
achieve complete virologic response on Zeffix treatment increases
year-on-year, and at four years, three quarters of patients with active
liver disease† are able to stop treatment. These new data suggest that
this pattern of improvement may be mirrored in children. Importantly,
even the 18% of patients with a variant form of HBV (YMDD variant
HBV), which have reduced susceptibility to Zeffix in laboratory assays,
derived some clinical benefit from treatment.