SAN FRANCISCO – November 06, 2026 -- AusperBio's investigational antisense oligonucleotide AHB-137 maintained functional cure in 16 of 17 evaluable nucleos(t)ide analogue (NA)-treated chronic hepatitis B participants 12 months after they stopped all HBV treatment, according to long-term follow-up data from Study AB-10-8004. No participant required NA re-initiation during follow-up.
Nine of nine evaluable NA-treated participants stay cured at 15 months
In the NA-treated cohort, functional cure held in 9 of 9 evaluable participants at 15 months after NA discontinuation. The cohort enrolled 34 participants (21 complete responders, 13 partial responders) from the Phase 2 studies AB-10-8002 and AB-10-8003.
Of 6 partial responders who stopped NA, 2 reached complete response during off-treatment follow-up. Principal investigator Jinlin Hou of Southern Medical University said this continued improvement may reflect patients' own immune responses taking over, and that larger studies must confirm it.
Six of seven treatment-naive complete responders keep functional cure through 15 months
The treatment-naive cohort enrolled 11 participants (7 complete responders, 4 partial responders) from Study AB-10-8008 Part A. All had received 16 weeks of AHB-137 monotherapy, followed by 24 weeks of follow-up without HBV treatment.
Six of the 7 complete responders maintained functional cure 9 months after treatment discontinuation, and all 6 maintained it through 15 months. The seventh experienced viral rebound and withdrew from the study.
No hepatic flares or new safety signals appear in either cohort
The company reported no clinical relapse, severe hepatic flares, hepatic decompensation or new safety signals in either cohort during follow-up.
The study defines complete response as hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) below 0.05 IU/mL with HBV DNA below 10 IU/mL. Functional cure is complete response maintained for at least 24 weeks without any HBV treatment.
Phase 3 in China is running as AusperBio targets finite-duration therapy
AHB-137 is being evaluated in a Phase 3 trial in China, following a completed global Phase 1 study and multiple Phase 2 studies. The drug has not been approved by any regulatory authority.
CEO Guofeng Cheng said, "A functional cure only matters if it lasts after treatment stops." He described AHB-137 as a potential backbone of finite-duration treatment for the roughly 240 million people living with chronic hepatitis B worldwide. The company cites the World Health Organization in putting about 75 million of those cases in China. It says current NA therapies rarely achieve functional cure, leaving most patients on long-term or lifelong treatment.
Junqi Niu of The First Hospital of Jilin University, co-principal investigator, called the treatment-naive findings early but encouraging and said they support evaluation in larger studies.
Two late-breaking orals at AASLD on November 8
The data will be presented at The Liver Meeting 2026 in Denver, Colorado, which runs November 5-9. Hou presents Abstract 5001 (NA-treated participants) at 2:00 p.m. MT, and Niu presents Abstract 5010 (treatment-naive participants) at 6:00 p.m. MT.