Their office building is unassuming with a facade of white and glass that from the outside suggests nothing out of the ordinary might go on inside.
Nevertheless, Bothell’s AVI BioPharma just won a U.S. Department of Defense grant worth up to $291 million over six years.
Initially, the company will receive up to $80 million to continue work into RNA (ribonucleic acid)-based therapies that could combat hemorrhagic fever viruses, specifically two with nasty reputations, namely, Ebola and Marburg.
“For, quite frankly, a small bio-tech company … it’s a pretty big deal,” said AVI interim President and CEO J. David Boyle.
Bothell Mayor Mark Lamb said that perhaps unknown to many residents, the city’s bio-tech corridor contains some of what he called the most innovative companies in the world. Lamb said the city tries to do all it can to promote those businesses.
“It’s really heartening to see these things,” he added in regard to the federal grant won by AVI.
Based in Oregon but having opened a facility on Monte Villa Parkway about a year ago, Boyle said AVI was ready to proceed with research immediately after receiving word on the grant from the federal government.
The company already is working on therapies for more garden-variety influenza viruses courtesy of a separate $18 million government grant.
They also are in advanced clinical studies on treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a particularly devastating form of that disease.
“Clearly, a lot of things are going right,” Boyle said. “We have a team that is very excited about what we’re doing.”
According to Boyle and the company’s Web site, most of AVI’s potential advances are based on a unique manipulation of RNA that involves the use of bio-technology with a really long name, but shortened is known as PMO antisense — in Boyle’s words — a very drug-like platform that affects targeted RNA.
According to AVI’s Web site, the new technology can target both messenger RNA and precursor RNA. In short, AVI believes it can down-regulate or up-regulate specific genes or proteins, or turn those genes or proteins on or off.
Though he said he’s been primarily involved in the business side of bio-tech, Boyle easily moves through explanations of AVI’s complicated undertakings.
For example, in the case of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Boyle said the company’s goal is to block production of unwanted or harmful DNA strands. In recent testing, at least one patient showed a 50-percent positive change in muscle fibers. According to Boyle, with that in mind, PMO technology may be the first treatment to be disease altering in the case of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Regarding the Ebola and Marburg studies, Boyle said while the work could take up to six years, it also could include all trials and other steps needed to get new treatments licensed by the Food and Drug Administration.
Incidentally, while Boyle joked he had a container of Ebola virus on his desk, no Ebola or Marburg viruses are present at AVI’s Bothell facility. Boyle said all testing with actual viruses is done by the federal government at a presumably very controlled facility in Maryland.
For the future, in addition to working on cures for the Ebola and Marburg viruses, Boyle said AVI is seeking partners to forward its potential treatments for more common forms of influenza.
“We’ve had some pretty good successes recently,” Boyle said, adding the 30-year-old company is looking forward to bringing more and more products to market.
