NEW YORK, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Gilead Sciences Inc <GILD.O> on Friday said a second late-stage trial has shown that its HIV treatment Viread was more effective in treating hepatitis B than Gilead's drug Hepsera, which is already approved for treating the liver infection in adults. Favorable results for Viread in a similar late-stage trial were reported in June. In that 48-week study, about 71 percent of the 250 patients in the Viread arm had a complete response, compared with 49 percent in the Hepsera arm of 125 patients. Side effects were comparable in both treatment groups of the trial, which included some patients previously treated for hepatitis B. The separate 266-patient study described on Friday compared the two Gilead drugs among patients who had never previously been treated for hepatitis B, an infection that over years can seriously harm or destroy the liver and increase the risk of liver cancer. After 48 weeks of treatment, 67 percent of patients taking Viread had a complete response, compared with 12 percent of those taking Hepsera, Gilead said in a statement. Both drugs were generally well tolerated, as in the separate previously reported Phase III trial, Gilead said. (Reporting by Ransdell Pierson, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)
