Arbutus Says US Lifts Clinical Hold on AB-101 Hepatitis B Drug

08:10 AM EDT, 10/22/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Arbutus Biopharma (ABUS) said Thursday the US Food and Drug Administration lifted a clinical hold on its AB-101 treatment for hepatitis B, letting the company run further trials of the drug in the country. AB-101 is a pill designed to switch on the body's immune response against the hepatitis B virus by blocking a protein called PD-L1, the company said. In a phase 1a/1b study, the drug was generally well tolerated, with strong target binding in seven chronic hepatitis B patients and a drop in virus surface protein in two patients at the 30 milligram dose, Arbutus said. Shares of the company were up 2.4% in Thursday premarket activity.