Defendant
1 case as defendant.
Protiva Biotherapeutics, Inc. is a British Columbia corporation founded in September 2000 (spun out of Inex Pharmaceuticals) and originally based in Burnaby, B.C., Canada. It was acquired by Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corporation in a business combination completed May 30, 2008, becoming a wholly owned subsidiary; Tekmira renamed itself Arbutus Biopharma Corporation (Nasdaq: ABUS) in July 2015, and Protiva was amalgamated into Arbutus effective January 1, 2018. Protiva therefore has no independent operations today and persists primarily as a named patent-holding entity within Arbutus. Arbutus is a clinical-stage infectious-disease biopharma (Warminster, PA) with roughly 19 employees and about $6.2M revenue in FY2024 following 2024–25 restructuring (Arbutus 10-K/press releases; MarketWatch).
Operations. Protiva developed stable nucleic acid-lipid particle (SNALP) technology — lipid nanoparticle (LNP) formulations for delivering siRNA and other nucleic acids in vivo. Its programs included ApoB SNALP for hypercholesterolemia and siRNA candidates against hepatitis B and Ebola (the latter with UTMB). The LNP platform originating at Protiva later supported Alnylam's patisiran (Onpattro) and is the technology asserted in mRNA-vaccine litigation.
Litigation posture. Protiva is not a classic NPE; it is a legacy subsidiary/IP holder appearing in LNP patent disputes as patent owner, consistent with its two tracked cases (one plaintiff-side, one defendant-side). The Federal Circuit case Protiva Biotherapeutics, Inc. et al. v. Moderna Therapeutics, Inc. et al. (2019-11-27) arose from the PTAB review of U.S. Patent 9,364,435, with Protiva as cross-appellant; the PTAB case Moderna Therapeutics, Inc. v. Arbutus Biopharma Corp. et al. (2018-02-21) is Moderna's IPR petition against Arbutus/Protiva. Its LNP patents are exclusively licensed to Genevant Sciences (a Roivant subsidiary), which co-asserts them with Arbutus.
Context. The Moderna dispute led to Arbutus/Genevant's 2022 Delaware suit and a March 2026 global settlement with Moderna worth up to $2.25 billion (Arbutus/Roivant press releases; Reuters). Arbutus/Genevant continue LNP litigation against Pfizer/BioNTech. Venues are D. Del. and D.N.J., not the Eastern District of Texas.
Moderna Therapeutics petitioned for inter partes review of all claims 1-22 of US 9,404,127. The PTAB issued a final written decision holding all challenged claims unpatentable as inherently anticipated by U.S. Patent No. 8,058,069.