Arbutus Appoints Two New Executives

Karen Sims, MD, PhD Promoted to Chief Medical Officer

Christopher Naftzger Appointed as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer

WARMINSTER, Pa., July 10, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Arbutus Biopharma Corporation (Nasdaq: ABUS) (“Arbutus” or the “Company”), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company leveraging its extensive virology expertise to develop novel therapeutics that target specific viral diseases, today announced the appointment of Dr. Karen Sims as Chief Medical Officer and Mr. Christopher Naftzger as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer. Mr. Naftzger succeeds Dr. Elizabeth Howard who will continue in an advisory role with respect to the on-going patent infringement litigations. Both Dr. Sims and Mr. Naftzger will report directly to William Collier, Arbutus President and Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately.

“We are excited to welcome Karen and Chris to the executive management team,” commented Mr. Collier. “Karen has played an integral role in the clinical development of AB-729, our lead RNAi therapeutic, during her six-year tenure at Arbutus, and has continued to advance our pipeline of HBV programs. I am confident that under her leadership, the clinical team will continue to effectively execute our mission to develop curative regimens for patients with chronic HBV.”

Mr. Collier continued, “Chris brings over a decade of experience serving as in-house general counsel for life science companies, making him well equipped to assist the company in its next stage of development. We expect this to be a seamless transition for the legal department as Liz continues to support the Company, serving in an advisory role with respect to our ongoing patent infringement litigation cases. On behalf of the entire Arbutus team and Board of Directors, I would like to thank Liz for her contributions over the last seven years as part of our legal team in addition to her many prior years of service as our external counsel. Liz has been instrumental in overseeing all legal initiatives for the Company and I’m thankful we will continue to benefit from her expertise moving forward as she serves in an advisory role.”

Dr. Karen Sims, MD, PhD, joined Arbutus in April 2017 and has held positions of increasing seniority, including most recently as Vice President, Clinical Development, before being promoted to Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Sims is a board-certified infectious disease physician with more than 12 years of industry experience in conducting and overseeing early stage through global Phase 2 clinical trials. Prior to joining Arbutus, Dr. Sims held multiple positions during her seven-year tenure at Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY). Most recently she served as Medical Director in the Virology and Immunoscience therapeutic areas where she oversaw Phase 1 and 2 trials in the HCV direct-acting antiviral program and several HIV discovery programs, as well as support for HIV marketed products. Previously, Karen was an Attending Physician and Instructor in Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, with a focus on solid organ transplant infectious disease, HIV clinical care and translational research in lung transplantation. Dr. Sims obtained her BS in Biological Psychology at Bates College, her PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania, and received her MD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Karen completed her Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.