Arbutus Biopharma:下一个突破性的生物技术?

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https://seekingalpha.com/article ... ig-breakout-biotech

newchinabok

Arbutus Biopharma: The Next Big Breakout Biotech?

Jun.22.18 | About: Arbutus Biopharma (ABUS)
Augury Investments       
Augury Investments
Long only, Deep Value, growth at reasonable price, research analyst

(82 followers)
Summary

I will discuss Arbutus Biopharma, a small biotech company focusing on HBV treatments.

I will provide some background on HBV in order to put in context Arbutus' various drugs.

I will focus on ARB-1467, Arbutus Biopharma's RNAi inhibitor which has shown great efficacy in reducing HBsAg levels in clinical II trials.

Introduction

Arbutus Biopharma (NASDAQ:ABUS) is a biotech company with a market capitalization of $387 million. Arbutus focuses on developing treatments for HBV. The company has three different products in development targeting different steps in the viruses' life-cycle. Arbutus' lead compound ARB-1467 has been shown to be efficacious in phase II clinical trials. Arbutus has two other products in the early stages of development; AB-506 (capsid inhibitor) and AB-452 (HBV RNA destabilizer). Arbutus is seeking to apply for an IND for both products with the FDA in 2018 to initiate phase I trials. As such, I believe that Arbutus is a good investment and a possible takeover target for Gilead (GILD) or another large biopharma company.

Background About HBV

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a small partially double-stranded DNA virus that only infects human and chimpanzee liver cells. According to a world health organization (WHO) survey estimate, there are around 257 million chronic HBV carriers globally. HBV encodes for four gene products. They are:

1. A viral reverse transcriptase/DNA polymerase

2. A nucleocapsid or capsid

3. Three envelope proteins named the large, medium, and small

4. The X gene

HBV uses its envelope proteins to bind to NTCP, the only known receptor, to enter into the liver cell. The HBV partially double-stranded DNA, also known as relaxed circular DNA (rcDNA), is then released by an unknown mechanism into the nucleus of the cell. Prior to its release into the nuclease, the covalently bound viral reverse transcriptase/DNA polymerase is removed. The nicked HBV DNA is repaired by the human host cell's DNA repair machinery. This forms the infamous covalently closed circular DNA or cccDNA. If you are familiar with HBV, this is what all companies and scientist talk about eliminating in infected cells in order to cure the patient. From the cccDNA, all viral transcripts of which there are four are produced. These viral RNAs are the template for the human host cell's translation machinery which produces all the viral proteins described. After all viral proteins have been produced, infectious virions can be formed and can then egress from the infected cell into the blood stream to infect the next naive cell.

桦子

杨梅生物制药：下一个大突破生物技术？

Jun.22.18 |关于：杨梅生物制药（ABUS）
Augury投资
Augury投资
长期以来，深度价值，以合理的价格增长，研究分析师

（82位粉丝）
概要

我将讨论Arbutus Biopharma，一家专注于HBV治疗的小型生物技术公司。

我将提供一些有关乙肝病毒的背景资料，以便说明杨梅的各种药物。

我将重点关注Arbutus Biopharma的RNAi抑制剂ARB-1467，它在临床II试验中显示出极大的降低HBsAg水平的功效。

介绍

Arbutus Biopharma（纳斯达克股票代码：ABUS）是一家生物技术公司，市值达3.87亿美元。 Arbutus专注于开发HBV治疗。该公司针对病毒生命周期中的不同步骤开发了三种不同的产品。已证明杨梅的先导化合物ARB-1467在II期临床试验中是有效的。 Arbutus在发展的早期阶段还有其他两种产品; AB-506（衣壳抑制剂）和AB-452（HBV RNA去稳定剂）。 Arbutus正试图在2018年向FDA申请两种产品的IND，以启动I期试验。因此，我相信Arbutus是Gilead（GILD）或另一家大型生物制药公司的良好投资和可能的收购目标。

关于HBV的背景

乙型肝炎病毒（HBV）是仅感染人和黑猩猩肝细胞的小部分双链DNA病毒。根据世界卫生组织（WHO）的调查估计，全球约有2.57亿慢性HBV携带者。 HBV编码四种基因产物。他们是：

1.病毒逆转录酶/ DNA聚合酶

2.核衣壳或衣壳

3.三种包膜蛋白被命名为大，中，小

4. X基因

HBV使用其包膜蛋白与NTCP（唯一已知的受体）结合进入肝细胞。 HBV部分双链DNA，也称为松弛环状DNA（rcDNA），然后通过未知机制释放到细胞核中。在释放入核酸酶之前，除去共价结合的病毒逆转录酶/ DNA聚合酶。切割的HBV DNA由人宿主细胞的DNA修复机器修复。这形成臭名昭着的共价闭环DNA或cccDNA。如果您熟悉HBV，那么所有公司和科学家都会谈论如何消除感染细胞以治愈患者。从cccDNA中，产生了其中有四个的所有病毒转录物。这些病毒RNA是人宿主细胞翻译机器的模板，其产生所有描述的病毒蛋白。在所有病毒蛋白产生后，可以形成感染性病毒体，然后可以从感染的细胞中流出进入血流以感染下一个幼稚细胞。