PORTLAND, OR--(Marketwire - November 24, 2008) - AVI BioPharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVII), a developer of RNA-based drugs, today announced the signing of an exclusive worldwide license agreement with the University of Western Australia (UWA) to a patent application related to the treatment of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). The patent application, “Antisense Oligonucleotides for Inducing Exon Skipping and Methods of Use Thereof” (U.S. Patent publication number US2008/0200409 A1 and foreign counterparts) claims compositions and methods for treating DMD in humans by skipping exons in the dystrophin gene using antisense oligomers. Among the inventors on the licensed patent application is Stephen D. Wilton, Ph.D., Head of the Molecular Genetic Therapies Group at UWA, a renowned pioneer in the use of exon skipping to treat DMD.
