— Christine M. Kukka, Project Manager, HBV Advocate
Researchers analyzed numerous studies to compare the effectiveness of tenofovir and entecavir–currently the two most potent antivirals on the market–and found tenofovir to be more potent, especially in previously untreated patients.
The study, published in the October issue of the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, reviewed two clinical trial results and nine studies involving 1,656 patients treated with the two drugs.
Nearly all of those treated with entecavir had never been treated before, nor had 481 of the 664 treated with tenofovir.
After 48 weeks of treatment, tenofovir proved to be the faster-acting antiviral. Both groups achieved similar rates of normal alanine aminotransferase (ALT) rates, which indicates no liver damage.
"These results suggest that tenofovir is a better choice to treat chronic HBV patients than entecavir as it is better able to suppress HBV viral load and has a similar safety profile," researchers wrote. (1)
An unrelated study by Turkish researchers published in the October issue of the International Journal of Infectious Diseases, also compared the two antivirals and found that tenofovir induced a faster decline in viral load than entecavir. Also, 7% of entecavir-treated patients eventually developed resistance to the antiviral.
Their study compared outcomes in 90 tenofovir-treated patients and 105 patients treated with entecavir. Most patients were male (72%), average age was 43, and all were treated for about 30 months.
Both groups had similar HBeAg seroconversion rates and similar rates of ALT normalization. However the average time it took patients to achieve undetectable viral load levels was 11.5 months in the tenofovir group and 12.9 months in the entecavir group. (2)
Labels: tenofovir vs entecavir, viral load
