Interferon alpha therapy is a generally accepted agent for the treatment of chronic HBV infection and effective in about one third of patients. Recently, in the HBV 99-01 study, pegylated interferon alpha-2b (PEG-IFN) has been shown to be effective in HBeAg-positive patients with chronic hepatitis B. In this study, 266 patients were randomized to receive PEG-IFN in combination with either lamivudine or placebo for 52 weeks.