NeuroVive Pharmaceutical has announced that the license agreement with Arbutus Biopharma (formerly OnCore Biopharma) has been terminated and all rights to the NVP018 compound have been reverted back to NeuroVive.

The agreement, signed in 2014, was related to the development and commercialization of NeuroVive’s compound NVP018 for oral treatment of Hepatitis B viral infection.

In its portfolio of several Hepatitis B compounds, Arbutus has previously made the decision to proceed with other compounds and to discontinue the development of NVP018 for this indication. As a consequence, the agreement between Arbutus and NeuroVive has now been terminated.

Under the termination agreement, NeuroVive will at no cost receive NVP018 drug product and material produced by Arbutus Biopharma, representing a value of approximately 1.5 MUSD. Data from preclinical and CMC development have been transferred. Furthermore, all license rights to the NVP018 compound have been reverted to NeuroVive for further development in any potential indication.

“We have appreciated the interactions with Arbutus and there are a number of valuable learnings that have come out of the preclinical development activities. As we see several very exciting potential treatments with NVP018 in areas with unmet medical need, the R&D team is currently exploring various options for further development of these opportunities. The material provided by Arbutus will be most useful in these activities”, said Erik Kinnman, CEO of NeuroVive.