Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a serious global public health problem. Despite the availability of HBV vaccines for three decades, the global prevalence of chronic HBV infection has only declined slightly. Among the 2 billion people who are infected with HBV, more than 350 million people are chronically infected, and 75% of these live in Asia or the west Pacific regions. Around 15% to 40% of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients will develop and die from progressive liver diseases, such as liver failure, cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma. Therefore, there is an urgent need to treat CHB patients as soon as possible.

Current antiviral therapy for CHB does not eradicate the virus, but can produce an immunological cure, defined as loss of HBsAg from the serum and sustained HBV DNA suppression. The goal of therapy is to reduce the incidence of liver-related complications including cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with CHB.

There are mainly two treatments: Interferon, and oral antivirals. Of the two, treatment with oral antivirals (OAV) is more commonly successful in achieving a high degree of viral suppression in patients with CHB. The available OAV treatment options for CHB include nucleoside/nucleotide analogs including lamivudine (LVD), adefovir dipivoxil (ADV), entecavir (ETV), telbivudine, and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF). Nucleos(t)ide analogues are administered for many years and often for life. And severe acute exacerbations of hepatitis B have been reported in patients who have discontinued OAV treatment. Thus, there is a need on CHB alterative therapy considering compliance, efficacy and economy factors.