Arbutus Biopharma lays out 2024 objectives, sees cash runway into Q1 of 2026

Arbutus Biopharma (ABUS) announced its 2024 business outlook including its clinical development milestones to advance its HBV pipeline and a financial update. “As we enter 2024, our strong balance sheet and anticipated clinical trial readouts position us well towards achieving our mission of developing a functional cure for patients with cHBV. Our Phase 2a program for imdusiran, our RNAi therapeutic, consisting of three separate trials, reinforces the potential role of imdusiran as a cornerstone in a treatment regimen to functionally cure patients with cHBV. Additionally, AB-101, our oral PD-L1 inhibitor, continues to progress and we look forward to preliminary data from the ongoing Phase 1a/1b clinical trial. We remain committed to continuing discovery research in HBV and we are confident that we have the talent and resources to execute our mission,” said Michael J. McElhaugh, Interim President and Chief Executive Officer of Arbutus Biopharma. “Arbutus will continue to protect and defend its intellectual property, which is the subject of the on-going lawsuits against Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech. The Company is seeking fair compensation for Moderna’s and Pfizer/BioNTech’s use of its patented LNP technology that was developed with great effort and at a great expense, without which Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccines would not have been successful. With respect to the Moderna lawsuit, fact discovery is currently on-going with the claim construction hearing scheduled for February 8, 2024. According to the Court Scheduling Order, which was issued on March 21, 2023, the court is expected to issue its claim construction order within 60 days of conclusion of the claim construction hearing. Expert testimony and depositions will then follow. A trial date has not been set, but the trial is expected to commence in the first half of 2025. The lawsuit against Pfizer/BioNTech is ongoing and a date for a claim construction hearing has not been set,” the company said. “The Company expects to significantly reduce its net cash burn in 2024 when compared to 2023. The Company expects net cash burn in 2024 to range from $63M-$67M versus a 2023 net cash burn of approximately $85M. The Company believes its cash, cash equivalents and investments in marketable securities of approximately $132M as of December 31, 2023, are sufficient to fund its operations into the first quarter of 2026. The preliminary cash, cash equivalents and investments as of December 31, 2023 and its preliminary 2023 net cash burn were calculated prior to the completion of an audit by Arbutus’ independent registered public accounting firm and are therefore subject to adjustment,” the company added.