Vir

Vir Biotechnology, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that discovers and develops therapeutics for serious infectious diseases and, more recently, oncology, operating in the United States and internationally. The company was incorporated in 2016 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Its work is organized around two technology platforms: a next-generation antibody platform applied to infectious diseases, and the PRO-XTEN protease-releasable masking technology applied primarily to cancer. Vir holds exclusive rights to the PRO-XTEN masking platform for oncology and infectious disease; PRO-XTEN is a trademark of Amunix Pharmaceuticals, a Sanofi company.

The clinical pipeline is led by the combination of elebsiran and tobevibart in Phase 3 for chronic hepatitis delta, with tobevibart incorporating Xencor's Xtend and other Fc technologies. In oncology, Vir has three Phase 1 dual-masked T-cell engager programs licensed from Sanofi: VIR-5500 (PSMA), studied with or without ARPI or taxane; VIR-5818 (HER2), studied with or without pembrolizumab; and VIR-5525 (EGFR), also studied with or without pembrolizumab. Additional undisclosed PRO-XTEN T-cell engager targets are preclinical, as are HIV antibody candidates pursued with the Gates Foundation. Preclinical work also spans influenza A and B antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates and coronavirus monoclonal antibodies. Historically the company also developed antibody-based medicines against COVID-19 and Ebola.

Vir reports a network of collaboration and license agreements, including with Astellas (grant collaboration and license), Norgine (license for chronic hepatitis delta), the Gates Foundation (amended and restated letter agreement), Brii Biosciences (option and license agreement), Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (collaboration and license), the Institute for Research in Biomedicine, The Rockefeller University, Xencor, and GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals (collaborative research agreement).