AVI BioPharma has won a two-year $28 million research contract with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and the Department of Defense (DoD). 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 new agreement comes in addition to three previous agreements AVI has with the CDC, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), and the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) to research infectious diseases.
"This partnership with DTRA and the DoD serves as validation of AVI's proprietary NEUGENE® antisense approach to gene silencing in general, as well as specific confirmation of AVI's concept of rapid response therapeutics," said 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 unprecedented ability to develop and produce countermeasures for a broad spectrum of existing and emerging biothreat agents."
- check out AVI's press release on the contract
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