This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

VIDEO: Paul Y. Kwo, MD, speaks to HBV as a curable disease

HONOLULU — In this exclusive video interview, Paul Y. Kwo, MD, professor of medicine and director of liver transplantation at Indiana University, and HCV Next Editorial Board member, discusses current therapies for hepatitis B virus infection and whether it will ever be a curable disease.

“These talks are relevant because we are now entering the era where our other chronic viral disease, hepatitis C is easily cured. Hepatitis B can't, as of yet. We don’t have cures for hepatitis B, but we’ve been able to suppress the virus with potent, nucleotide analogs and we have two excellent ones out there right now; tenofovir (Viread, Gilead Sciences) and entecavir (Baraclude, Bristol-Myers Squibb), but unfortunately these therapies to date are required life-long.”

Current HBV therapy has been mostly viral suppression. However, Kwo stated that clinicians are now focusing on curing the disease.

“Over time, hopefully we can transition from viral suppression to true functional cure, means clearing of surface antigen and antibody I still think we will have to follow these individuals closely, but the more we are able to improve the outcomes for hepatitis B patients, the more likely we will be able to make this a rare disease.”

Disclosures: Kwo reports consulting and receiving grant support from Gilead Sciences, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Genetic Pharma and Merck.