Vir Biotechnology, Inc.

Second-quarter 2026 license and collaboration revenue was $238.9 million, largely tied to the $240 million upfront payment from Astellas. R&D expense was $135.3 million versus $97.5 million a year ago, and SG&A was $30.2 million versus $22.3 million a year ago. Net income was $80.1 million compared with a net loss of $111.0 million in the prior-year quarter. The company ended the quarter with approximately $1.01 billion in cash, cash equivalents and investments, up $198.5 million, and reiterated a cash runway into the second half of 2028. No formal quarterly or annual revenue/EPS guidance was given; management instead pointed to upcoming hepatitis delta readouts in Q4 2026 and Q1 2027, along with continued advancement of VIR-5500 toward Phase III next year.

Marianne De Backer emphasized execution across both hepatitis delta and oncology, framing the quarter as a period of meaningful progress and regulatory/commercial readiness. For hepatitis delta, she highlighted the ECLIPSE program as a catalyst-rich package and said the company is preparing one of the most comprehensive clinical datasets in the disease, including switch data from bulevirtide. In oncology, she described VIR-5500 as advancing rapidly with multiple cohorts running in parallel and said the platform’s early data are validating PRO-XTEN’s potential.

Brent Sabatini said the balance sheet strengthened materially, with cash, cash equivalents and investments ending at approximately $1.01 billion, up $198.5 million. He noted the quarter included $315 million from Astellas, made up of a $240 million upfront payment and a $75 million equity investment payment, and said collaborations with Astellas and Norgine plus a follow-on equity offering generated more than $0.5 billion in cash since December 2025. Financially, he cited $238.9 million of collaboration revenue, $135.3 million of R&D expense including a $48 million Sanofi milestone payment, $30.2 million of SG&A, and reiterated cash runway into the second half of 2028.

Analysts focused on the timing and content of hepatitis delta follow-up data, the potential for finite treatment, and what the company wants to see from ECLIPSE 2 and the 5818 signal-finding study. Management said finite treatment is being explored in ECLIPSE 2 and 3, but not in ECLIPSE 1, and said ECLIPSE 2 is primarily looking for target not detected at 24 weeks in patients switching off bulevirtide. They also said the bulevirtide switch dataset could be a meaningful differentiator because of the label’s black box warning and because no competitor is expected to have comparable switch data at launch. On VIR-5500, management said the docetaxel combination and other cohorts will help shape pivotal design, and on VIR-5818 they described the program as signal-seeking with the bar varying by indication.