New Drug Found Better at Suppressing Hep B Virus

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Two international studies of a new drug, telbivudine, have produced potentially good news for hepatitis B patients, showing that it suppresses the virus that damages the liver faster and better than other treatments. Chronically infected people are at high risk of death from cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer, diseases that kill about one million people a year, the World Health Organization says.