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 contract is separate from a previously announced allocation of $11 million to AVI as part of the 2006 Defense Appropriations Act, but builds on previous successful research into ebola and marburg viruses conducted with the US Army.
“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,” said Alan Timmins, president and COO of AVI.
AVI also has three ongoing Cooperative R&D Agreements (CRADAs) with various government agencies underway to test its antisense drugs against a variety of infectious viruses.
According to AVI its Neugene technology may have a significant role to play in the future of bioterrorism defense. Neugene antisense compounds are designed to match up perfectly with a specific gene or viral sequence, blocking the function of the target gene or virus.