The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 278 No 7458 p759
30 June 2007

This article
Reprint   Photocopy

  Acrobat Reader

News summary

New option for patients with hepatitis B

A thymidine nucleoside analogue antiviral drug for treating hepatitis B has been launched this week by Novartis.

Marketed as Sebivo, telbivudine is indicated for the treatment of adults with chronic hepatitis B virus infection who have compensated liver disease and evidence of viral replication, persistently elevated serum alanine aminotransferase levels and histological evidence of active inflammation or fibrosis.

The recommended dose of telbivudine is one 600mg tablet taken orally once a day. Patients with renal impairment, whose creatinine clearance is less than 50ml/min, require a longer dosing interval, adjusted according to the severity of their renal impairment.

Telbivudine is not recommended as monotherapy for patients with established viral resistance to lamivudine.