PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 24, 2006--AVI BioPharma, Inc. (Nasdaq:AVII - News), today announced that it has received a Notice of Allowance for U.S. Patent No. 7,049,431 titled "Antisense Antibacterial Cell Division Composition and Method." The patent describes the use of NEUGENE ® antisense compounds to target bacterial cell division and cell cycle genes for the development of a new class of antibiotics. This is the central patent covering AVI's antibiotic development program referred to as NeuBiotics.
