AVI Biopharma, a Portland, OR-based developer of RNA-based drugs, said today it has secured a contract with the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency to develop drugs for H1N1, or swine flu. Under the contract, worth as much as $5.1 million, AVI will analyze the H1N1 sequence, determine appropriate targets and identify lead and back-up candidate drugs. The company (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AVII]]) also plans to do animal tests.
Author: Luke Timmerman
Luke is an award-winning journalist specializing in life sciences. He has served as national biotechnology editor for Xconomy and national biotechnology reporter for Bloomberg News. Luke got started covering life sciences at The Seattle Times, where he was the lead reporter on an investigation of doctors who leaked confidential information about clinical trials to investors. The story won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award and several other national prizes. Luke holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and during the 2005-2006 academic year, he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.
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