Research to center on antisense therapeutics to treat the effects of Ebola, Marburg, and Junin hemorrhagic viruses.
AVI BioPharma executed a two-year $28-million research contract with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). The contract will fund AVI’s development of antisense therapeutics to treat the effects of Ebola, Marburg, and Junin hemorrhagic viruses, which are seen as biological warfare and bioterrorism agents.
“This partnership with DTRA and the DoD serves as validation of AVI’s Neugene® antisense approach to gene silencing in general, as well as specific confirmation of AVI’s concept of rapid response therapeutics,” points out Alan P. Timmins, president and COO of AVI. “We believe that through this contract we will continue to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of our Neugene technology plus AVI’s ability to develop and produce countermeasures for a broad spectrum of existing and emerging biothreat agents.”
