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AVI BioPharma Announces Hepatitis C Virus License Agreement with Chiron
Business Wire - January 27, 2006 09:00

PORTLAND, Ore., Jan 27, 2006 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- AVI BioPharma, Inc. (Nasdaq:AVII), today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Chiron Corp. granting AVI a nonexclusive license to Chiron's patents and patent applications for the research, development and commercialization of antisense therapeutics against hepatitis C virus (HCV). Chiron scientists were the first to clone HCV, and the company has been granted more than 100 HCV-related patents.

The license further strengthens AVI's patent position on its HCV antisense product candidates, which are already covered by issued U.S. patent claims. AVI's lead NEUGENE(R) antisense compound for HCV, AVI-4065, is currently being evaluated in a multicenter exploratory safety and efficacy clinical trial in the U.S. In conjunction with the license agreement, AVI will issue Chiron shares of AVI common stock as an initial license fee payment. Other financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

"This agreement with Chiron positions AVI to move forward in our HCV development program with confidence and clarity around intellectual property," said Denis R. Burger, Ph.D., chief executive officer of AVI. "The addition of the HCV patents licensed from Chiron to AVI's own patents provides a solid proprietary base in the HCV field for AVI and our eventual commercial partners."

The multicenter clinical study currently underway is designed to assess the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and viral response to daily subcutaneous administration of AVI-4065 among healthy volunteers and patients with chronic active HCV. AVI recently reported completion of the first phase of this study with favorable safety, tolerability and pharmacokinetic profiles and is now in the second efficacy phase of the program. Additional data are expected from this trial later in the first quarter.

The principal investigator of the clinical trial is Mark Holodniy, M.D., F.A.C.P., professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and director of the Department of Veterans Affairs Public Health Research & Consultation Program.