Benzinga | Feb 26, 2021 11:52AM EST

Assembly Bio/Arbutus Bio Start Testing Vebicorvir/AB-729 Triplet Therapy In HBV Infection

* Assembly Biosciences Inc (NASDAQ: ASMB) and Arbutus Biopharma Corp (NASDAQ: ABUS) initiated a Phase 2 trial evaluating the former's vebicorvir (VBR), combined with the latter's AB-729 and standard-of-care nucleos(t)ide reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NrtI) therapy for chronic HBV infection.

* The companies announced a clinical collaboration agreement in August last year.

* The 60-subject trial will evaluate the safety, pharmacokinetics, and antiviral activity of the triplet combination compared to the double combinations of VBR plus NrtI and AB-729 plus NrtI.

* AB-729 is an RNA interference therapeutic targeted to hepatocytes.

* Vebicorvir is a capsid inhibitor.

* Earlier today, Assembly Biosciences announced that it would not initiate Phase 3 studies of vebicorvir (VBR, or ABI-H0731) as chronic suppressive therapy.

* Price Action: ASMB shares are trading 5.9% lower at $5.2, while ABUS is down 0.8% at $3.8 in market trading hours on the last check Friday.