Biopharmaceutical company VBI Vaccines has announced the expansion of its hepatitis B virus (HBV) partnership with Brii Biosciences to work on the prevention and treatment of the disease.
Through two licence and collaboration agreements, Brii Bio has acquired worldwide exclusive licences for VBI-2601 (BRII-179) and an exclusive licence for PreHevbri in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region from VBI.
VBI-2601 (BRII-179) is a recombinant, protein-based HBV immunotherapeutic candidate that builds on the three-antigen conformation of the prophylactic 3-antigen HBV vaccine candidate of VBI.
Designed to target enhanced B-cell and T-cell immunity, this immunotherapeutic candidate is being evaluated in two Phase 2 clinical trials with Brii Biosciences as part of a possible functional cure for chronic hepatitis B infection.
PreHevbri is the only 3-antigen hepatitis B vaccine and consists of the three hepatitis B surface antigens of the hepatitis B virus, – S, pre–S1, and pre–S2.
It has received approval for use in the US, European Union/European Economic Area, UK, Canada and Israel.
VBI president and CEO Jeff Baxter stated: “This expanded partnership with Brii Bio is a strong endorsement for our HBV programmes and our contribution to the fight against hepatitis B.”
Brii Bio president and CEO Zhi Hong stated: “We are excited to substantially strengthen our partnership with VBI, expanding our HBV pipeline and reinforcing our commitment to public health by combatting HBV.
“By exploring combination cure strategies across our portfolio, we aim to produce the most durable curative treatment in the broadest population of HBV-infected patients. The addition of the APAC rights for PreHevbri enables us to address HBV burdens from prevention to cure and jump-start our commercialisation efforts in China and Asia Pacific.”
VBI will receive an upfront payment of $15m from Brii Bio, including a $3m equity investment on achieving near-term milestones.
VBI is entitled to a further $422m in potential payments for regulatory and commercial milestones, and potential royalties running into double digits in the licensed territories. These are global for VBI-2601 and APAC, while for PreHevbri, Japan is excluded.
Besides its responsibility for all development, regulatory, and commercialisation activities, Brii Bio will also meet the costs of the two programmes in their respective licensed territories.
Beyond the APAC region, VBI will hold global rights to PreHevbri.