Arbutus Pharma Corp. (f/k/a Arbutus Biopharma Corp.)

Arbutus Biopharma Corporation (traded as Nasdaq: ABUS; court records in the case below list the plaintiff as "Arbutus Pharma Corp., f/k/a Arbutus Biopharma Corp.") is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company headquartered at 701 Veterans Circle, Warminster, Pennsylvania. It is a Canadian-incorporated public company tracing its roots to Tekmira Pharmaceuticals (spun out of Inex Pharmaceuticals) and renamed Arbutus Biopharma in July 2015. After major restructurings in 2024–2025 (workforce cuts and the closing of the Warminster HQ), headcount is small — third-party profiles range from roughly 19 to under 50 employees — with market capitalization near $1 billion (BioCentury, April 2026).

Operations. Arbutus develops therapeutics for chronic hepatitis B (cHBV). Its lead candidates are imdusiran (AB-729), a GalNAc-conjugated subcutaneous RNAi therapeutic (Phase 2; FDA Fast Track), and AB-101, an oral PD-L1 inhibitor. It also holds lipid nanoparticle (LNP) delivery intellectual property, a royalty entitlement on Alnylam's ONPATTRO, and roughly 16% of the common equity of Genevant Sciences, a nucleic-acid delivery company launched with Roivant Sciences to which Arbutus licensed LNP rights outside HBV. This is a genuine operating company, not a non-practicing entity.

Litigation posture. The structured data show 1 tracked case as plaintiff and 0 as defendant — consistent with an operating company enforcing its own patents rather than a PAE asserting an acquired portfolio. The venue is the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, not a plaintiff-friendly Texas venue.

Notable case. Arbutus Pharma Corp. (f/k/a Arbutus Biopharma Corp.) et al. v. Pfizer Inc. et al. (D.N.J. 3:23-cv-01876, filed April 4, 2023) asserts five U.S. LNP patents against Pfizer/BioNTech's Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccine; a claim construction ruling issued September 2025. A parallel LNP suit against Moderna settled globally in March 2026 for up to $2.25 billion.