A Two-year Study of Telbivudine in HBeAg Negative Hepatitis

Inclusion Criteria: * Detectable serum HBsAg at the Screening visit and at least 6 months prior * HBeAg negative at Screening visit * serum HBV DNA level \>2,000 IU/mL at Screening visit * Elevated serum ALT≥2 ×ULN and \<10×ULN at Screening visit (excluding ALT elevations due to non-HBV reasons such as drug, alcohol etc) Exclusion Criteria: * Patient has a history of clinical signs/symptoms of hepatic decompensation (Child-Pugh Grade B or C) or ascites, esophageal variceal bleeding, hepatic encephalopathy, or spontaneous bacterial peritonitis. * Patient has a history of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) or suspected symptoms of HCC, such as suspicious foci on imaging studies and/or serum alpha-fetoprotein (AFP)\>50ng/mL. * Patient has received treatment of nucleoside or nucleotide drugs whether approved or investigational before. * Patient has received IFN or other immunomodulatory treatment within 52 weeks before Screening. * Patient has a medical condition that requires frequent use of systemic acyclovir or famciclovir. * Patient has a medical condition that requires frequent use of systemic corticosteroids, however topical and inhaled corticosteroids are allowed. * Patient has used hepatotoxic drugs within one month. * Patient has overtaken alcohol (\>40g/day) or abused illicit drugs in recent one year. * Use of other investigational drugs at the time of enrollment. * History of hypersensitivity to any of the study drugs (telbivudine or adefovir). * Pregnant or nursing (lactating) women, where pregnancy is defined as the state of a female after conception and until the termination of gestation, confirmed by a positive urine pregnancy test. * Patient is co-infected with HCV, HDV or HIV. * Patient has one or more additional known primary or secondary causes of liver disease, other than hepatitis B (e.g., alcoholism, autoimmune hepatitis). * History of malignancy of any organ system.