AVI plans to conduct the animal efficacy trials for potential approval of its drugs under the Animal Rule as part of its continued collaboration with USAMRIID. The majority of the collaborative research effort between AVI and USAMRIID has been supported by a research contract from the DoD's TMTI with the goal of developing a new antiviral platform targeting hemorrhagic fever viruses. The current funding is a second amendment and expansion of an original contract from DTRA, which was awarded in November 2006 for $28 million and has been fully authorized. The contract for the first amendment was issued in May 2009 when an additional $5.9 million was authorized to support continued development of AVI's RNA-based drugs AVI-6002 and AVI-6003 to treat Ebola and Marburg virus infections, respectively.

"The expansion of the contract for our therapeutic programs in Junin, Ebola and Marburg viruses reflects the DoD's continued support of our bio-defense program, which is developing a series of RNA-based anti-viral drugs," said David Boyle, Chief Financial Officer of AVI. "AVI's ability to virtually double the value of the original contract is a powerful illustration of the performance of our drug candidates to date."

AVI-6002, AVI-6003 and AVI-7012 are novel analogs based on AVI's PMO antisense chemistry in which anti-viral potency is enhanced by the addition of positively-charged components to the morpholino oligomer backbone.

SOURCE: AVI BioPharma, Inc.