AVI BioPharma Inc and Exelixis Inc have entered a strategic alliance for antisense drug discovery research and development. Under the terms of the five-year agreement, AVI will provide its proprietary NeuGene morpholino antisense agents to Exelixis and its German subsidiary, Artemis Pharmaceuticals GmbH, in order to systematically and comprehensively define gene function in vivo on a genome-wide scale in zebrafish and other model organisms.

Exelixis will apply its expertise in genetic model systems to discover, validate and screen novel targets suitable for inhibition by antisense therapeutics. AVI will design and synthesize NeuGene morpholinos for use as drugs and conduct preclinical and clinical studies on antisense drug candidates arising from the collaboration. The two companies will jointly own, and Exelixis has an option to co-develop with AVI, certain novel antisense products that arise from the alliance.

NeuGene antisense agents have been shown to work very effectively in zebrafish and other animal model systems to characterize gene function, and will be used by Exelixis and Artemis in high-throughput gene inactivation. This important technology, in conjunction with other proprietary tools, will facilitate functional analysis of the majority of the 30,000 genes in the zebrafish genome. Zebrafish are a favorite species of developmental biologists because of their rapid growth and transparent bodies that allow easy study of many body processes such as angiogenesis.

Denis R. Burger, Chief Executive Officer of AVI said, "Key to this agreement is the quick development time it promises. When we define the function of a gene with NeuGenes, we don't have to go back and spend three to five years in drug development, because the NeuGene antisense agent that was used to define gene function is the drug. We believe our targeting advantage with the NeuGene morpholino technology, a leading antisense technology, has the potential to rapidly define gene function in a single step, in a manner that we believe eliminates the trial and error methods that are so problematic with previous generations of antisense."

In addition to licensing and development rights, Exelixis will pay AVI for the manufacture of antisense agents it uses for gene function validation through the five-year term of the agreement. Additional co-development and other financial terms of the alliance have not been disclose.