Tekmira Yesterday, Arbutus Today

As we theorized early this month, Tekmira Pharmaceuticals (TKMR) is changing its name and re prioritizing drug development efforts around Hepatitis B. Unfortunately, our musings that investors may reward the stock for the news was wrong.

According to a Monday press release, Tekmira will become Arbutus Biopharma Corporation (ABUS) in the next two weeks, relegating its non-HBV RNAi assets (which include TKM-PLK1, TKM-Ebola, and preclinical assets -HTG & -GSD) and all lipid nanoparticle intellectual property to a new business unit. The new unit will be independently financed and led by Dr. Michael Abrams, current Tekmira VP and Chief Discovery Officer.