Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) infection is a serious global public health problem. Although the HBV vaccine has been on the market for thirty years, the global prevalence of chronic HBV infection has only slightly decreased. Among the 2 billion people infected with HBV, over 350 million have been chronically infected with HBV, of which 75% live in Asia or the Western Pacific region. China is one of the countries with the highest HBV infection rate in the world, with approximately 9.09% of the population or 120 million people chronically infected with HBV. Approximately 15% to 40% of patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) will experience disease progression and ultimately die from progressive liver disease, such as liver failure, cirrhosis, or liver cancer.

The goals of treatment for chronic hepatitis B virus infection are to reduce inflammation of the liver and to prevent complications by suppressing viral replication. Treatment options include pegylated interferon alfa-2a administered subcutaneously or oral antiviral agents (nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors). Hepatitis B treatment time is relatively long, generally more than 2 years, withdrawal from treatment will make the disease relapse. Long-term treatment induces the inconvenience and also the economic burden to the patients. Compliance is an important factor to affect the treatment outcome. Therefore, new drugs are urgently needed from the perspectives of compliance, efficacy, and economy.