Melbourne researchers will trial a potential cure for hepatitis B on 50 patients from Australia and New Zealand.

Fifty people with hepatitis B in Australia and New Zealand will go on a groundbreaking trial of drugs that could cure the viral disease.

If successful this medication could help more than two billion people worldwide who are infected with the virus.

While most people will recover from hepatitis B, around 10 per cent of patients go on to develop a chronic infection, which can lead to scarring of the liver and liver cancer.

Many of these patients need to take anti-viral medication for a long period of time to reduce their risk of liver damage, but this treatment does not cure the virus.

Dr Marc Pellegrini from Melbourne's Walter and Eliza Hall Institute says the new treatment had the potential to revolutionise the way chronic Hepatitis B infections are treated.

The trial will use an anti-cancer drug called birinapant in combination with an existing Hepatitis B anti-viral drug.

"This drug has the potential, for the first time, to functionally cure chronic hepatitis B infections," says Dr Pellegrini.

The trial, to be held in Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Auckland, is currently recruiting eligible participants.

For more information phone 1800 243 733 or email [email protected]

AAP.