What the trial was testing
The REEF-1 enrolled 471 patients with hepatitis b. The study was sponsored by Janssen Sciences Ireland UC and tracked outcomes across the full group of patients who matched the trial's eligibility profile.
It was mid-stage testing (phase 2/3). Trials at this stage are designed to produce evidence regulators and physicians can act on — not just observations to follow up later.
What the results showed
19% of patients on the highest dose met targets for potentially stopping daily hepatitis B drugs.
The lancet. Gastroenterology & hepatology · 2023 · NCT03982186
These findings — that met targets for potentially stopping daily hepatitis B drugs at 48 weeks — were published in the The lancet. Gastroenterology & hepatology and represent the headline result of the study.
Researchers tracked outcomes across 471 patients enrolled in the trial. The result was consistent enough across the group that the team felt confident reporting it.
What this means for patients
For patients with hepatitis b, this result changes the calculus on what to ask their care team about. Whether it changes day-to-day care depends on factors like disease subtype, prior treatments, and where the patient is in their care journey.
What you can do now
This was mid-stage testing and JNJ-3989 is not yet FDA-approved. The treatment lowered virus levels meaningfully in many patients, which could help future therapies work better. If you have chronic hepatitis B, talk to your doctor about ongoing trials or other approved options.
Eligibility for the treatments mentioned above depends on specific test results and clinical history. Bring this summary, the trial name, and your most recent labs or pathology report to your next visit.
Open hepatitis b trials
Long-term Follow-up Study to Evaluate Durability of Treatment Response in Previous Bepirovirsen Study Participants (B-Sure)
This is a global multi-center, long-term follow-up study to assess durability of efficacy, as measured by maintenance of treatment response from the parent study, in participants who participated in a previous bepirovirsen study and achieved a complete or partial response. Eligible participants will be enrolled in this study after completing the end of study (EoS) visit in the respective parent bepirovirsen studies (studies B-Clear \[209668: NCT04449029\], B-Together \[209348: NCT04676724\], B-Fine \[212602: NCT04544956\], B-Well 1 \[202009: NCT05630807\], B-Well 2 \[219288: NCT05630820\], and TH HBV ASO-001 \[217023: NCT05276297\]). Participants will be categorized as Not-on-NA, NA-cessated, or On-NA based on their nucleos(t)ide analogue (NA) status in the parent study. No further treatment with bepirovirsen will be administered in this study.
Peginterferon Treatment Study for Inactive Chronic Hepatitis B Patients
There are about 400 million chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection patients worldwide, posing a serious threat to global public health security. In China, HBV infection occured mainly in the perinatal period or infants, and about 10% of patients in the immune tolerance stage spontaneously transit to the immune clearance stage every year and become HBeAg-negative chronic HBV infection, resulting in a significant increase in the number of inactive chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients. In recent years, different guidelines have not reached consensus on the need to initiate antiviral therapy for inactive CHB patients: In the guidelines of Asian Pacific Association for The Study of Liver(APASL)-2015 and American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases(AASLD)-2018, antiviral therapy is generally not recommended for this group of patients, and regular outpatient follow-up is recommended. Guideline of European Association for the Study of the Liver(EASL)-2017 suggests that people with a family history of cirrhosis and liver cancer at this stage could be treated with antiviral therapy even if they did not meet the indications of antiviral therapy. According to Guidelines for the Prevention and Treatment of Chronic Hepatitis B (version 2019) of China, antiviral therapy is still recommended for some patients with inactive HBsAg carrier status who are HBV DNA positive and meet the treatment indications. Studies have shown that some patients in immune tolerance stage may enter the immune clearance stage and have hepatitis flare. Patients of inactive CHB have the potential to develop HBeAg-negative CHB, and studies of long-term follow-up in this population have indicated the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma. With the popularization of the concept of functional cure for chronic hepatitis B, more and more people with inactive CHB have a strong desire for treatment. In recent years, several studies have demonstrated that Pegylated-interferon therapy can achieve high functional cure rate in patients with inactive CHB. The purpose of this study is to establish a national multi-center, prospective real world study to compare the efficacy of different antiviral treatment regimens for patients with inactive CHB and seek for the factors of functional cure.