China-based biotechnology company Brii Biosciences Limited (HK2137) announced on Tuesday that it has entered into an agreement with biopharmaceutical company VBI Vaccines, Inc. and certain of its subsidiaries (VBI) and its creditor K2 VBI Equity Trust LLC and K2 HealthVentures LLC, acquiring the intellectual property (IP) and other assets relating to BRII-179.

BRII-179 is a novel recombinant protein-based HBV immunotherapeutic candidate that expresses the Pre-S1, Pre-S2 and S HBV surface antigens, and is designed to induce enhanced and broad B-cell and T-cell immunity.

Under the agreement Brii will fully acquire the BRII-179 patents, BRII-179 know-how and relevant BRII-179 materials, eliminating all future milestones and royalty obligations payable to VBI. The total consideration to be paid by Brii is USD18m. Brii and VBI will also terminate their agreements announced in February 2024, which were not consummated due to the discontinuation of VBI's operations. All payment obligations of Brii under the terminated agreements other than the outstanding principal amount of USD2.5m in the form of a promissory note will be cancelled.

"This transaction ensures us with uninterrupted clinical supply of BRII-179 and complete ownership of its IP," said Dr. Zhi Hong, Ph.D., Brii Bio chairman and CEO. "It vests more value of BRII-179 in Brii's shareholders as we advance to late-stage development."

Brii has initiated several BRII-179 combination studies to pursue its strategy of achieving a higher functional cure rate for the patients with chronic Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) infection. It said that ongoing studies continue to support that BRII-179 has the potential to identify HBV patients more responsive to curative treatments. Based on the cumulative and emerging data, a large, prospective and confirmatory Phase 2b study evaluating sequential treatment of BRII-179 followed by elebsiran and PEG-IFN alpha combination (the ENRICH study) is now fully enrolled.