PARTNERING
Advancing our mission through collaboration.
We are a clinical-stage biotechnology company conducting multiple clinical trials focused on developing a cure for patients with HBV through combination therapies.
We have a portfolio of unique products targeting mechanisms essential in HBV, a robust pipeline of agents delivering near-term catalysts with long-term value creation potential, and a management team with proven scientific leadership in antiviral drug discovery and development.
We are passionate about our mission and actively seeking collaborators and licensing opportunities within antiviral diseases. To learn more, contact us at bd@arbutusbio.com.
Our current partners include:
Qilu Pharmaceutical
Arbutus and Qilu Pharmaceutical have entered into an exclusive licensing agreement and strategic partnership to develop and commercialize AB-729 in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Under the terms of the licensing agreement, Qilu will be responsible for funding all development and commercialization activities in the aforementioned territories and Arbutus is entitled to receive an upfront payment, development, regulatory and sales milestone payments and royalties on annual net sales. In addition, Arbutus retains the non-exclusive right to develop and manufacture in the Qilu territory for exploiting AB-729 in the rest of the world. This collaboration is intended to bring AB-729 to the largest HBV patient population in need of a cure and tap into one of the largest and most promising healthcare markets worldwide.
Barinthus Biotherapeutics plc
Arbutus and Barinthus (formerly Vaccitech plc) have entered into a clinical collaboration agreement to complete a clinical trial to evaluate treatment of AB-729, in combination with Vaccitech’s proprietary immunotherapeutic, VTP-300, in nucleos(t)ide reverse transcriptase inhibitor-suppressed patients with chronic HBV.
Genevant Sciences Ltd
In April 2018, the Company entered into an agreement with Roivant Sciences Ltd. (“Roivant”), its largest shareholder, to launch Genevant Sciences Ltd. (“Genevant”), a company focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of a broad range of RNA-based therapeutics enabled by the Company’s lipid nanoparticle (“LNP”) and ligand conjugate delivery technologies. The Company licensed exclusive rights to its LNP and ligand conjugate delivery platforms to Genevant for RNA-based applications outside of HBV, except to the extent certain rights had already been licensed to other third parties (the “Genevant License”). The Company retained all rights to its LNP and conjugate delivery platforms for HBV. Under the Genevant License, the Company is entitled to receive tiered low single-digit royalties on future sales of Genevant products covered by the licensed patents. If Genevant sub-licenses the intellectual property licensed by the Company to Genevant, the Company is entitled to receive under the Genevant License, upon the commercialization of a product developed by such sub-licensee, the lesser of (i) twenty percent of the revenue received by Genevant for such sublicensing and (ii) tiered low single-digit royalties on product sales by the sublicensee. Arbutus owns approximately 16% of the common equity of Genevant. Arbutus retained all rights to its LNP and conjugate delivery platforms for HBV.
Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Arbutus entered into a license agreement with Alnylam that provides Arbutus with royalty entitlements to Alnylam’s global net sales of ONPATTRO, the first FDA approved application of Arbutus’ LNP technology. Under the terms of this license agreement, Arbutus is entitled to tiered royalty payments on global net sales. Arbutus has sold its royalty interest on future global net sales of ONPATTRO to the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (“OMERS”) under a Purchase and Sale Agreement. In addition to the royalty from the Alnylam License Agreement, the Company is also receiving a second, lower royalty interest on global net sales of ONPATTRO originating from a settlement agreement and subsequent license agreement with Acuitas Therapeutics, Inc. (“Acuitas”). The royalty from Acuitas has been retained by the Company and was not part of the royalty sale to OMERS.
