So in other words: a very minor result.
19% is not a lot.
And the term "functionally cured" when they still have the virus, is not a cure, by definition. I get that for many this may be an improvement, but my gripe is with the wording here. This is inflation of feel-goodness.
After some searching, I found estimates ranging between 600 thousand to 1.6 million people living with Hepatitis B in the US.
If we can help 20% of those people, that means significant life improvements to somewhere between 120 thousand and 320 thousand people.
If we take the upper end, that's half the population of Wyoming.
Quote: "233 of 1220 people who had received bepi had functional cures—both undetectable HBV DNA and surface antigen—versus zero of 614 participants in the placebo arm."
This is a HUGE deal because low virality now doesn't mean low virality in the future.