China’s Brii Biosciences (HKG: 2137) announced that its strategic partners, Vir Biotechnology Inc., (NASDAQ: VIR) and VBI Vaccines Inc., (NASDAQ: VBIV), presented results from multiple clinical studies for the treatment and prevention of chronic hepatitis B viral (HBV) infection at the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) Congress 2023. The studies involved BRII-179, BRII-835, BRII-877, and preHevbrio.
Vir Biotechnology’s Late-Breaker Oral Presentation
In a late-breaker oral presentation, Vir announced 24-week follow-up data from a Phase II trial. The data demonstrated that when VIR-2218 (BRII-835) was administered for 24 or 48 weeks on top of a course of up to 48 weeks of pegylated interferon alpha (PEG-IFN-⍺), 26% (8/31) of virally suppressed participants with chronic HBV achieved HBsAg loss at the end of treatment.
Phase II MARCH Trial Results
In another oral presentation, Vir reported 48-week post-treatment data from Part A of the Phase II MARCH trial. The combination treatment of VIR-2218 (BRII-835) and VIR-3434 (BRII-877) for chronic HBV infection resulted in a 2.7-3.1 log10 IU/mL decrease in HBsAg levels following five or 12 weeks of combination treatment, with 90% of participants achieving HBsAg less than 10 IU/mL at the end of this short treatment period.
VIR-3434 (BRII-877) Pharmacokinetics Highlighted
In a poster presentation, Vir highlighted the single dose pharmacokinetics of VIR-3434 (BRII-877) from a Phase I clinical trial in patients with chronic HBV infection. The data supports the continued evaluation of VIR-3434 (BRII-877) in further studies.
VBI Vaccines’ PROTECT Study Follow-up Data
Additionally, VBI presented follow-up data in a subset of participants from the pivotal Phase III study, PROTECT, up to 3.5 years after completion of immunization with preHevbrio, a prophylactic 3-antigen HBV vaccine. The study aimed to determine the magnitude and duration of the immune response. PreHevbrio consists of the same recombinant HBV surface antigens, Pre-S1, Pre-S2, and S, in virus-like particles, used in BRII-179 (VBI-2601).-Fineline Info & Tech
