预约演示

Brii goes all in on hepatitis B, punting HIV, depression, lung disease programs to potential partners

2024-03-22

交易

临床2期临床3期临床1期

Brii Biosciences' newfound enthusiasm for hepatitis B is coming at a cost for the rest of the biotech’s pipeline.

Brii Biosciences is putting all its chips hepatitis Bs B, hoping that potential partners will show an interest in picking up the remainder of a wide-ranging pipeline that includes HIV, lung disease and depression programs.

Brii Biosciences Chinese biotech’s attention hepatitis B-179, a protein-based immunotherapeutic that Brii licensed from VBI Vaccines. The candidate is in a pair of phase 2 trials to seelung diseasecoulddepression of a “potential functional cure regimen for the treatment of chronic HBV infection.”

The therapy, which is designed to induce enhanced anBRII-179B-cell and T-cell immunity, is being studBriiin combination VBI Vaccines VBI Vaccineselebsiran, a subcutaneously administered hepatitis B virus (HBV)-targeting siRNA licensed from Vir Biotechnology, or pegylated interferon alphchronic HBV infectionerapy.

“2023 was a pivotal year for Brii Bio, with key insights received from multiple phase 2 combination studies," Brii’s CEO Zhi Hong, Pelebsirand in a full-year earnings release.Vir Biotechnology pegylated interferon alpha (PEG-IFNα)-based

“With BRII-179 we have a straBrii Bioassess and enhance HBV patients’ intrinsic immunity, targeting therapies Briihose most likely to respond while sparing others from poorly tolerated regimens,” the CEO said. “These are important breakthroughs informing our late-stage clinical combination trials.”

The coBRII-179so has other clinical studies ongoing looking at both elebsiran and tobevibart, an HBV-neutralizing monoclonal antibody designed to block entry of all 10 genotypes of HBV into hepatocytes.

But Brii’s newfound enthusiasm for HBV is coming at a cost for the relebsirane biotobevibartelineHBVn the same earnings release, the company revealed that in order to “prioritize reHBVrces to focus on the clinical and commercial development” of its HBV portfolio, the biotech is now “pursuing partnership opportunities” for essentially every non-HBV program.

ThatBriiludes BRII-693, a treatmentHBVr serious gram-negative infections that the biotech globally licensed from Qpex Biopharma only last July. Brii had been gearing up to launch a phase 3 registrational trial in hospital-acquired bacterial pneumoniHBV HBVnd ventilator-associated bacterial pneumonia next year. But the status of the program in todayHBV HBVrelease is that the company is “seeking strategic funding partners to expedite development.”

Also awaiting BRII-693 interest is BRII-753, whigram-negative infections studies to explore its use as a combinatQpex Biopharmaoption for HIV paBriits. Additionally, Brii had initiated preclinical work to see if Bhospital-acquired bacterial pneumoniaus inventilator-associated bacterial pneumonia for HIV.

They will be joined on the back burBRII-753wo long-acting injectable therapies for neurological conditions. One is BRII-296, which is awaiting a readout from a phase 2 trial in postpartum depression in the secondBRII-753 of the year. The other is BRII-297, which is undergoing a phase 1 study for anxiety and depressive disorders with data due in the second half of the year.

It’s perhaps less of a surprise that Brii is leaving epetraborole for someone else to invest in. Last month, Brii’sBRII-296 AN2 Therapeutic announced it was voluntarily pausing postpartum depressionse 3 portion of a study of the bacterial leucyl-tBRII-297hetase inhibitor for treatment-refractory anxietyteriudepressive disorders disease “pending further data review.”