¶ Arbutus Biopharma
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Arbutus Biopharma is a Canadian biopharmaceutical company based in Vancouver, British Columbia and Warminster, Pennsylvania. It is the successor to Tekmira Pharmaceuticals.
¶ History
Arbutus was launched in July 2015 through the merger of Tekmira Pharmaceuticals and OnCore Biopharma.[1]
Moderna sought and received four sublicenses from Acuitas Therapeutics for their LNP technology in 2016.[2] This led to legal action from Arbutus (which inherited legal ownership over the patents from Tekmira) striking the previous contract between the two Vancouver companies and preventing Acuitas from issuing any further licenses.[3] A court decision later granted Arbutus full ownership over the licenses in question, which the company described as the consolidation of "its LNP intellectual property estate."[4] Moderna was, however, cleared to continue using the LNP tech granted under the existing four sub-licenses within Canada.[5][6]
In June 2016, Arbutus filed a patent titled “Delivering CRISPR therapeutics with lipid nanoparticles.”[7] The patent was published in April 2020.
On February 21, 2018, Moderna filed a lawsuit against Arbutus challenging one of its lipid nanoparticle patents, titled "Non-liposomal systems for nucleic acid delivery." The company filed a second challenge on March 5, 2018, against Arbutus's patent titled "Lipid formulations for nucleic acid delivery."[6:1] Meanwhile, a court decision granted Arbutus full ownership over the licenses in question, which the company described as the consolidation of "its LNP intellectual property estate."[4:1] Moderna was, however, cleared to continue using the LNP tech granted under the existing four sub-licenses within Canada.[5:1][6:2]
In April 2018, Arbutus announced that it was joining forces with the Swiss biotech company Roivant Sciences to launch Genevant Sciences, a jointly-owned venture focused on “the discovery, development, and commercialization of a broad range of RNA-based therapeutics” aiming for “5-10 product candidates into the clinic by 2020.”[8]
¶ COVID-19
In an August 2021 presentation to Vaccine Choice Canada, David E. Martin said that Justin Trudeau misled the Canadian public by withholding information about the licensing agreements between Acuitas Therapeutics, Arbutus Biopharma, Pfizer and Moderna.[9]
On February 28, 2022, Arbutus Biopharma and Genevant Sciences filed a lawsuit against Moderna, accusing the company of seven counts of patent infringement.[10]
The suit alleges that Moderna had licensed Arbutus' lipid nanoparticle (LNP) technology for its products, but not specifically for their mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine product. While the companies are seeking financial compensation, they insist they do not intend to halt or otherwise impede the distribution of the product. Moderna denied the allegations, claiming they had created their own proprietary lipid nanoparticle delivery technology for use in their mRNA platform.
On March 10, 2023, U.S. District Judge Mitchell Goldberg rejected a bid by Moderna to dismiss some of the patent infringement claims brought against the company by Arbutus and Genevant Sciences.[11][12]
¶ Organization
Arbutus has sponsored the Hepatitis B Foundation.[13]
¶ Team
| Name | Position | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| David Hastings | Chief Financial Officer[14] | Incyte, ArQule, Sepracor, Unilife, SCYNEXIS, VBL Therapeutics, Entasis Therapeutics |
| Richard Henriques | Independent director[15] | University of Pennsylvania, EMulate Therapeutics, Cabaletta Bio, Franklin Institute), Heritage Conservancy, Episcopal Community Services, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Merck |
¶ Investors
Investors in Arbutus Biopharma include:[16]
¶ External links
¶ Further reading:
- February 13, 2023: "Follow the Patents: Lipid Nanoparticles and COVID-19 Genetic Vaccines" by Liam Sturgess
Cutler, A., & Baradarani, H. (2015, July 20). Tekmira announces launch of Arbutus Biopharma, a Hepatitis B solutions company. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. http://archive.today/2022.03.22-200915/https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1447028/000117184315003907/newsrelease.htm ↩︎
Vardi, N. (2017, May 16). Moderna can’t escape my intellectual property, says Arbutus CEO. Forbes. http://archive.today/2022.03.22-180143/https://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2017/05/16/moderna-cant-escape-my-intellectual-property-says-arbutus-ceo/?sh=5b6aeb01633a ↩︎
Cutler, A., Tolmie, T., & Schull, D. (2017, April 13). Arbutus injunction survives attempted appeal by Acuitas. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. http://archive.today/2022.03.22-180943/https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1447028/000117184317002101/exh_991.htm ↩︎
Tolmie, T., & Schull, D. (2018, February 22). Arbutus settles litigation, terminating Acuitas’ rights to LNP technology. Arbutus Biopharma. http://archive.today/2022.03.22-182650/https://investor.arbutusbio.com/news-releases/news-release-details/arbutus-settles-litigation-terminating-acuitas-rights-lnp-0 ↩︎ ↩︎
Stendahl, M. (2018, February 22). Settlement clears Moderna to use Canadian firm’s drug delivery tech. American City Business Journals. http://archive.today/2022.03.22-182650/https://investor.arbutusbio.com/news-releases/news-release-details/arbutus-settles-litigation-terminating-acuitas-rights-lnp-0 ↩︎ ↩︎
Silbersher, Z. (2018, December 17). Does Moderna Therapeutics’ pipeline depend upon its patent dispute with Arbutus Biopharma over mRNA delivery? Markman Advisors. http://archive.today/2022.03.22-180516/https://www.markmanadvisors.com/blog/2018/12/17/does-moderna-therapeutics-pipeline-depend-upon-its-patent-dispute-with-arbutus-biopharma-over-mrna-delivery ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎
Lee, A. C. H., & Weber, N. D. (2020, April 21). Delivering CRISPR therapeutics with lipid nanoparticles. Google Patents. https://patents.google.com/patent/US10626393B2/en ↩︎
Tolmie, T., & Schull, D. (2018, April 11). Arbutus and Roivant Launch Genevant Sciences with Industry-Leading Platform to Develop Broad Range of RNA Therapeutics for Genetic Diseases. Arbutus Biopharma. https://web.archive.org/web/20230207071630/https://investor.arbutusbio.com/news-releases/news-release-details/arbutus-and-roivant-launch-genevant-sciences-industry-leading ↩︎
Vaccine Choice Canada. (2021, August 21). Dr. David E. Martin drops Shocking Covid Info on Canadians! BitChute. https://web.archive.org/web/20221130214104/https://www.bitchute.com/video/ZUVtNa9xdBnW/ ↩︎
Choi, J. (2022, February 28). Biotech firms allege Moderna hijacked technology to develop COVID-19 vaccine. The Hill. http://archive.today/2022.03.02-223228/https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/596114-biotech-firms-allege-moderna-hijacked-technology-to-develop-covid-19 ↩︎
Stieber, Z. (2023, March 13). Judge Rejects Request From Moderna, Moving Key COVID-19 Vaccine Case to Discovery. The Epoch Times. http://archive.today/2023.03.13-173504/https://www.theepochtimes.com/judge-rejects-request-from-moderna-moving-key-covid-19-vaccine-case-to-discovery_5119082.html ↩︎
Goldberg, M. (2023). Case 1:22-cv-00252-MSG Document 64. Document Cloud; United States District Court for the District of Delaware. https://web.archive.org/web/20230316161451/https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23706145/moderna-covid-19-opinion.pdf ↩︎
Cohen, C. (2023). 2022 Annual Report (pp. 18–21). Hepatitis B Foundation. https://web.archive.org/web/20230314121341/https://www.hepb.org/assets/Uploads/HepB-2022-Annual-Report-v1-2.21.23.pdf ↩︎
David C. Hastings. Arbutus Biopharma. Retrieved December 1, 2023, from https://web.archive.org/web/20231201025848/https://investor.arbutusbio.com/management/david-hastings ↩︎
Richard C. Henriques. Arbutus BioPharma. Retrieved September 26, 2021, from https://web.archive.org/web/20210926102848/https://investor.arbutusbio.com/board-directors/richard-c-henriques ↩︎
Arbutus Biopharma - Funding, Financials, Valuation & Investors. Crunchbase. Retrieved August 25, 2023, from https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/arbutus-biopharma/company_financials ↩︎