The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved an AIDS drug made by Gilead to treat patients with hepatitis B. The drug Viread has been available in the U.S. as a treatment for HIV infection in adults since 2001.

The FDA is joining regulators in Europe, Turkey, Australia and New Zealand by allowing the drug in U.S. Generically known as tenofovir, the drug is taken in the form of a pill once daily. It works by blocking HBV DNA polymerase, the enzyme that is necessary for the virus to replicate in liver cells

Researchers at Saint Louis University School of Medicine are studying the effectiveness of a drug for patients with chronic hepatitis B that is currently being employed to treat HIV.

Adrian Di Bisceglie, M.D., chief of hepatology at Saint Louis University School of Medicine says many Hepatitis B patients currently take an antiviral called Hepsera