AVI BioPharma Inc. NASDAQ: AVII is a medical research and drug development company with corporate offices in Bothell, Washington, United States. Incorporated in 1980, the companies laboratories are located in Corvallis, Oregon. As of 2008^[update], the company has 170 issued medical patents, and over 150 patents pending.^[1]

Contents 1 History 2 Products 3 References 4 External links

[edit] History

AVI BioPharma opened their own production labratory in Corvallis, Oregon, in February 2002.^[2] The company made headlines in 2003 when it announced work on treatments for SARS and the West Nile Virus.^[2][3] In July 2009, the company announced they would move their headquarters from Portland, Oregon, north to Bothell, Washington, near Seattle.^[4] At that time the company led by president and CEO Leslie Hudson had 83 employees and quarterly revenues of $3.2 million.^[4] AVI had yet to turn a profit nor developed any commercial products as of July 2009.^[4] The company lost $19.7 million in the second quarter of 2009,^[5] and then won a $11.5 million contract with the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Threat Reduction Agency in October 2009.^[6] The company had completed its move to Bothell by this time, but retained their Corvallis facility.^[4][6]

[edit] Products

Its primary products are Morpholino oligos (PMOs), conceived of by James Summerton and invented by Summerton with Dwight Weller, being developed under the name NeuGene Antisense. This form of antisense therapy uses a synthetic structural analog of RNA to bind to the messenger RNA produced by a known disease-causing gene strand and thus deactivate it.

Morpholinos have been tested for a wide range of applications including prevention of cardiac restenosis after angioplasty, treatment of coronary artery bypass grafts, treatment of polycystic kidney disease, and redirection of drug metabolism. Morpholinos have been used in preclinical studies to inhibit replication of West Nile Virus, SARS, Hepatitis C, dengue fever, Ebola and Calicivirus, all of which are single stranded RNA viruses. However, clinical studies have not demonstrated significant effects in humans and there are no approved drugs in this class.

In addition to development of Morpholinos as therapeutics, AVI has conducted six human trials for colorectal and pancreatic cancers using their cancer vaccine AVICINE.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• AVI BioPharma drops two directors, shareholder group to dissolve - Portland Business Journal