 Assembly Biosciences Inc NASDAQ: ASMB and Arbutus Biopharma Corp NASDAQ: ABUS initiated a Phase 2 trial evaluating the formers vebicorvir VBR, combined with the latters AB-729 and standard-of-care nucleostide reverse transcriptase inhibitor NrtI therapy for chronic HBV infection. The companies announced a clinical collaboration agreement in August last year. 