AVII Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. (MM)

AVI BioPharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVII), a developer of RNA-based therapeutics, today announced the presentation of data from the Company's Duchenne muscular dystrophy and influenza programs at the 6th Annual Meeting of the Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society in Dana Point, Calif.

Peter Sazani, Executive Director, Preclinical Development at AVI, will present during the poster session at noon PDT on Friday, Oct. 22. The presentation, 063, is titled "Preliminary toxicological evaluation of AVI-7100, a phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomer with selectively introduced positive charges (PMOplus™) targeted to a highly conserved region of Influenza A virus." The presentation will feature preclinical data evaluating AVI-7100 for use in treating Influenza A.

Ryszard Kole, Ph.D., Senior Vice President of Discovery Research at AVI, will present during the oral abstract session, Splicing Applications, at 8 a.m. PDT on Saturday, Oct. 23. The presentation, 766, is titled "Oligonucleotide-Induced Skipping as Treatment for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy: Development of AVI-4658."

Both presentations will be posted on the AVI BioPharma Web site in the "Our Programs" section after their respective sessions are completed.

AVI-7100 is AVI's lead therapeutic candidate for influenza virus infections. The investigational drug candidate employs AVI's patented PMOplus™ technology that selectively introduces positive charges to its phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomer (PMO) backbone to improve interaction between the drug and its target.

AVI-4658 is AVI's lead investigational drug candidate in development as a systemically administered treatment for a substantial subgroup of patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a genetic muscle wasting disease caused by failure to produce dystrophin.

About AVI BioPharma

AVI BioPharma is focused on the discovery and development of novel RNA-based therapeutics for rare and infectious diseases, as well as other select disease targets. Applying pioneering technologies developed and optimized by AVI, the Company is able to target a broad range of diseases and disorders through distinct RNA-based mechanisms of action. Unlike other RNA-based approaches, AVI's technologies can be used to directly target both messenger RNA (mRNA) and precursor messenger RNA (pre-mRNA) to either down-regulate (inhibit) or up-regulate (promote) the expression of targeted genes or proteins. By leveraging our highly differentiated RNA antisense-based technology platform, AVI has built a pipeline of potentially transformative therapeutic agents, including one in the clinical development stage for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy. For more information, visit www.avibio.com.