The trial compared the PrimeBoost therapy with lamivudine (marketed by GlaxoSmithKline as Epivir), which is approved for the treatment of hepatitis B.
At 14 weeks, Oxxon’s PrimeBoost immunotherapy alone elicited hepatitis B antigen loss in 23% of patients, as compared to 9% of those who received lamivudine alone.
In addition, no patient receiving lamivudine alone had begun to produce antibodies to fight the infection by week 14, whereas 13% of receiving the immunotherapeutic alone had done so.
“Hepatitis B remains a major clinical challenge, with an urgent need for new approaches to clear the virus. Many patients do not respond to current treatments and antiviral resistance continues to be a challenge with long-term antiviral therapies,” said Dr Gill Pearce, senior director of clinical development at Oxxon and one of the study authors.