From Wall Street Journal Interactive edition, what will the effect in the stock tomorrow ???
Glaxo Drug May Prevent Hepatitis B
Sufferers From Developing Cirrhosis
Dow Jones Newswires
LONDON -- Glaxo Wellcome PLC said Sunday that new data show its
drug Zeffix (Lamivudine) may help prevent chronic hepatitis B sufferers from developing cirrhosis.
The data from three large clinical studies showed a smaller proportion of chronic hepatitis B patients treated with Zeffix progressed to cirrhosis, or liver scarring, compared with those treated with placebo or interferon-alpha.
The results were presented at the annual meeting of the European
Association for the Study of the Liver in Naples, and supported by other data showing additional Zeffix benefits, Glaxo said.
Only 1.8% of Zeffix-treated patients progressed to cirrhosis, compared
with 7.1% placebo-treated patients and 9.5% of those treated with
interferon-alpha.
Glaxo said the results showed a continued increase in the incidence of
e-antigen seroconversion -- an immune response to the virus that is thought to predict long-lasting remission of the disease -- and a continued reduction in levels of viral replication.
Zeffix is available in the Philippines, Canada and the U.S. and approved in China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Pakistan and New Zealand. Regulatory applications have been made in Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Europe.
Hepatitis B is a potentially fatal liver disease -- the ninth most common killer worldwide. About 350 million people are long-term carriers of the hepatitis B virus and nearly one-third are expected to develop progressive inflammation of the liver, leading to cirrhosis and liver cancer.
Previously, therapies for chronic hepatitis B were limited to interferons, which are injected and can be associated with unpleasant side effects. |
