Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ARWR) and Spring Bank Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:SBPH) have recently entered into an agreement for a clinical development program involving the former’s ARC-520 and the latter’s SB 9200 for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV).
Arrowhead and Spring Bank Announce Clinical Collaboration for ARC-520 and SB 9200 in Chronic Hepatitis B https://t.co/bCPnpr5ptD #biotech
— biotechnologies (@tom_biotech) October 6, 2016
Collaborative Work
The companies aim to conduct preclinical trials with the combination of ARC-520 and SB 9200. Later on, the agents will be integrated in the ongoing MONARCH Phase 2b clinical trial of Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals.
“The MONARCH Phase 2b combination study was specifically designed to be iterative in nature, allowing us to seamlessly add cohorts when additional novel agents are available to study in combination with ARC-520,” explained Bruce Given, M.D., Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Head of Research and Development (R&D).
Given has added that ARC-520 is an ideal backbone therapy for combinations. Meanwhile, SB 9200 demonstrates exceptional immunomodulatory properties that can potentially be therapeutic in combination with the former agent.
About the Agents
SB 9200 is being developed as a monotherapy and a combination therapy for viral diseases. It is currently undergoing the ACHIEVE Phase 2 clinical trial.
The first part of the ACHIEVE Phase 2 clinical trial is a placebo-controlled sequential cohort double-blind study evaluating increasing doses of the agent as a monotherapy for 12 weeks and as a combination therapy with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate for the following 12 weeks.
The second part of the ACHIEVE Phase 2 clinical trial will evaluate the agent as a monotherapy and as a combination therapy with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate in comparison to it as a monotherapy and as a combination therapy with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate after the determination of the optimal doses in part I.
On the other hand, ARC-520 is being assessed for its therapeutic potential for the treatment of chronic HBV. Specifically, Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals is evaluating whether the agent can significantly minimize circulating and non-circulating viral proteins.
On Thursday, Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals concluded the session at $7.03 while Spring Bank Pharmaceuticals closed at $11.85.
