Company: ABUS
Filing Date: 2025-03-27
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0001447028-25-000083
Chunk: 55

Company: Arbutus Biopharma Corp
Filing Date: 2025-03-27
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 55
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 example, the Fast Track program is intended to facilitate the development and review of new drugs that demonstrate the potential to address unmet medical needs involving serious or life-threatening diseases or conditions. If a product candidate receives Fast Track designation, the FDA may review sections of the NDA on a rolling basis, rather than requiring the entire application to be submitted to begin the review. Product candidates with Fast Track designation also may be eligible for more frequent meetings and correspondence with the FDA about the product candidate’s development. Another FDA program intended to expedite development is the Accelerated Approval pathway, which allows approval on the basis of a surrogate endpoint that is reasonably likely to predict clinical benefit or on an intermediate clinical endpoint that is reasonably likely to predict clinical benefit. To qualify for review under the Accelerated Approval pathway, a product candidate must treat a serious condition, provide a meaningful advantage over available therapies, and demonstrate an effect on a surrogate endpoint that is reasonably likely to predict clinical benefit or on an intermediate clinical endpoint. On December 29, 2022, Congress enacted the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, which included several changes to the Accelerated Approval pathway within the Food and Drug Omnibus Reform Act (FDORA).

Under FDORA, the FDA must specify the conditions for any post-approval studies before granting an Accelerated Approval. FDORA gives the agency significant flexibility in setting forth such conditions, which may include enrollment targets, study protocol and milestones—including the target date of study completion. The FDA may also require, as appropriate, that certain 

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post-approval studies be underway prior to Accelerated Approval or within a specified time from the date of approval. Accelerated Approval sponsors are required to report progress every six months on required post-approval trials. Breakthrough Therapy designation, which is available for product candidates under development for serious or life-threatening conditions and where preliminary clinical evidence shows that the product candidate may have substantial improvement on at least one clinically significant endpoint over available therapies, means that a product candidate will be eligible for all of the benefits of Fast Track designation, as well as more intensive guidance from the FDA on an efficient drug development program and a commitment from the agency to involve senior FDA managers in such guidance. Even if a product candidate qualifies for Fast Track designation or Breakthrough Therapy designation, the FDA may later decide that the product no longer meets the conditions for designation and may rescind the designation, and/or may determine that the product does not meet the standards for approval. As applicable, we anticipate seeking to utilize these programs to expedite the