AVI BioPharma Acquires Building for GMP Manufacturing

PharmaManufacturing.com
04/23/2007

AVI BioPharma, Inc. announced Apr. 20 that it has closed on the purchase of a 34,000-square-foot facility in Corvallis, Ore., which will house additional capability for large-scale GMP production of AVI's proprietary phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomers (PMOs), and for the recovery and purification of PMO precursors. Additional capacity for both of these processes will be necessary to meet the anticipated bulk drug supply requirements for AVI and its partners.

The company will continue to occupy the building it currently leases in Corvallis, which houses research space and a smaller-scale GMP manufacturing site. The purchase price of the new facility was $3.3 million, including a down payment of approximately $1.1 million in AVI common stock and cash, and the assumption of an existing mortgage.

"When our GMP build-out is completed, we believe that this new facility will provide the space and production capacity we anticipate needing to advance our Neugene antisense programs," said Dwight Weller, senior vice president of chemistry and manufacturing at AVI BioPharma. "We anticipate needing to produce larger amounts of material for advancing clinical trials and for eventual commercial production."

For more information about AVI, visit www.avibio.com.