John McHutchi­son throws in the tow­el on HBV drug, trig­ger­ing lay­offs as As­sem­bly shifts to next-gen ap­proach­es

When As­sem­bly Bio­sciences dis­closed in 2020 that its lead ex­per­i­men­tal he­pati­tis B drug ve­bi­corvir, in com­bi­na­tion with nu­cle­o­side ther­a­py, couldn’t of­fer the func­tion­al cure it was look­ing for, the biotech pinned hopes on a triple-drug con­coc­tion con­tain­ing an RNAi ther­a­peu­tic from Ar­bu­tus Bio­phar­ma.

Two years lat­er, As­sem­bly Bio said it’s shelv­ing ve­bi­corvir al­to­geth­er — and lay­ing off 30% of staffers as it re­groups. As part of the re­struc­tur­ing, the CMO and CFO will ex­it the com­pa­ny.

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