AB-201: Novel Small Molecule HBV Therapeutics

Hepatitis B is a viral attack on the liver leading to a potential chronic disease state and various liver complications, including liver failure, liver cancer, and cirrhosis. Of the 350M patients worldwide with Hepatitis B, an estimated 257M have chronic HBV. With the available resources of these highly-affected regions, only 10% of patients have been diagnosed with only 1.67% being treated. If a vaccine cannot intervene early, the complicated treatments and resources are highly restricted, leading to 887,000 deaths and 30M new HBV cases per year. Innovation in HBV treatment is a must.

We worked with Prof. Ploss to develop a business case for his technology that has the potential to identify novel small molecule hits that can be used as therapeutics against Hepatitis B. We identified two dual pipelines that Prof. Ploss can pursue in order to push his technology to the commercial stage.

This business was then pitched to the Gladstone Institute, Gilead, Genentech, 5AM Ventures, and Arch Ventures.