Company Overview
AVI BioPharma is a biopharmaceutical Company specializing in the discovery and development of novel, RNA–based drugs targeting a wide range of important diseases.
A pioneer in the fast growing field of RNA therapeutics, AVI has developed and optimized derivatives of its proprietary antisense chemistry (phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomers or PMOs) that can be designed to target the diseases through several distinct mechanisms of action.
Unlike other RNA therapeutic approaches, AVI’s antisense technology has been used to directly target both messenger RNA (mRNA) and precursor messenger RNA (pre–mRNA) allowing for both down regulation and up regulation of targeted genes or proteins. These broad capabilities give the company a unique RNA based technology platform and strong intellectual property position, both of which are the result of prodigious advances across several areas of science, including over 20 years of research and development work in chemistry and the Human Genome Project.
AVI is leveraging its discovery and development capabilities to build a broad pipeline of RNA–based therapeutics candidates to develop in collaboration with larger pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners. Current applications of AVI’s RNA technology platform include genetic diseases (Duchenne muscular dystrophy), infectious diseases (Ebola, Marburg viruses), cardiovascular disease (restenosis) and other research and early discovery targets.