PORTLAND, Ore., & SOUTH EGREMONT, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AVI BioPharma, Inc. (Nasdaq:AVII), and Charley’s Fund, Inc., today announced that AVI has been awarded a $2.45 million research grant from Charley’s Fund, a nonprofit organization that funds drug development and discovery initiatives specific to Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). This award, the largest grant ever made by Charley’s Fund and the largest received by AVI from a nonprofit foundation, will support a new product development program using proprietary exon skipping technologies developed by AVI and its partner, Ercole Biotech, Inc., to overcome the effects of certain genetic errors in the dystrophin gene. The award will allow AVI to accelerate its development of new therapeutics for DMD, a top priority for the company.
