Booming Arbutus Biopharma Relocating HQ to Warminster for More Space

August 22, 2016
By Alex Keown, BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff

PHILADELPHIA – Arbutus Biopharma Corporation , which is developing therapies for hepatitis B, is moving into a new 35,000 square-foot facility in Warminster, Pennsylvania as the company looks to provide clinical data on its new hepatitis program, ARB-1467 in the second half of this year.

In an interview with the Philadelphia Business Journal, Michael Sofia, the company’s chief technology officer, said the move was due to a need for new space. Arbutus currently occupies space at a business incubator in Doyestown, Pennsylvania. Arbutus has its roots in another company known for hepatitis treatments, California-based Gilead Sciences . Sofia was part of the team that developed Gilead’s blockbuster hepatitis C treatment, Sovaldi, the Journal said.

The new space Arbutus will take over, an existing building in Warminster, requires renovation before the company can occupy it. The space, which was previously used by the military, will have to be fitted with laboratory space and office space. The process is expected to take between seven and eight months, the Journal reported. When the company moves into the new site, it is expected to hire a number of new employees. The Journal said the company expects to expand to about 50 employees. Arbutus currently employs about three dozen people, the Journal said.

Arbutus has several hepatitis treatments in clinical and pre-clinical development. Its candidate ARB-1467 is currently in a Phase II development. ARB-1467 is being developed as a multi-component RNAi therapeutic that targets three sites on the HBV genome. The drug candidate is designed to target hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) expression from both cccDNA and integrated HBV sequence, the company said on its website. The Phase II trial is evaluating two dose levels of ARB-1467.

In May, the company struck a development partnership with Saint Louis University Liver Center to develop Ribunuclease H (RNaseH) inhibitors. Mark Murray, the company’s president and chief executive officer, said the deal will allow the company to expand its hepatitis B treatment pipeline programs.

“RNaseH is a component of the viral polymerase and crucial to HBV replication. We believe that an RNaseH inhibitor could complement other direct antiviral HBV products by further crippling the viral replication process, which we believe is going to be a critical component in achieving a cure for chronic HBV,” Murray said in May.

The company’s RNAi-based HBV treatments could go head-to-head with another pending therapy, Alnylam’s experimental ALN-HBV.

In July, the company reported its Phase I/II RNA-interference candidate TKM-PLK1 for patients with advanced Hepatocellular Carcinoma was well-tolerated, with more than half showing disease stability. More than 20 percent showed tumor reduction, the company said. With a focus on hepatitis B, the company said in July that it will look for partners to develop TKM-PLK1.

As of June 30 Arbutus had cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments of $165.3 million, as compared to cash, cash equivalents and short and long-term investments of $191.4 million on December 31, 2015, according to the company’s second quarter report.