Bothell bio-tech firm at forefront of trying to defuse real-life 'Contagion's
BOTHELL, Wash. -- The heart-pounding movie "Contagion" may have left weekend movie-goers itching for hand sanitizer, but it re-invigorated the staff at one Bothell bio-tech firm.
The scientific staff at AVI Biopharma didn't find the disaster film "Contagion" far-fetched for Hollywood.
"We thought it was a fairly realistic take on what a true pandemic would look like," said Chris Garabedian.
Gunnar Hansen says the lightning-quick outbreak depicted in the movie is so rapid it causes of lot of confusion among people. "And what people want to know was can they get something to cure themselves as everybody gets infected and that's what we strive to do at AVI."
Chemists and biologists here are designing vials of medicines to stop deadly viruses and infectious agents. Last year, the Department of Defense gave the Bothell company a $300 million grant and is now testing the team's rapid response.
"The Department of Defense gave us a viral or bacterial candidate and asked us to turn around a drug candidate as fast as we could," Garabedian said.
The company was contacted to find a cure during a real-life thriller in 2004.
"There was a lab accident where somebody was working with ebola and stuck themselves with a syringe contaminated with ebola virus," said Peter Linsley.
The worker was never infected and didn't need the drug that AVI developed within five days. The company claims it can't yet scale up to dosage numbers needed to battle a pandemic.
So far, the firm doesn't have any FDA-approved drugs but hopes with more safety testing they'll be on the front lines fighting killer bugs before they spread.
The scientific staff at AVI Biopharma didn't find the disaster film "Contagion" far-fetched for Hollywood.
"We thought it was a fairly realistic take on what a true pandemic would look like," said Chris Garabedian.
Gunnar Hansen says the lightning-quick outbreak depicted in the movie is so rapid it causes of lot of confusion among people. "And what people want to know was can they get something to cure themselves as everybody gets infected and that's what we strive to do at AVI."
Chemists and biologists here are designing vials of medicines to stop deadly viruses and infectious agents. Last year, the Department of Defense gave the Bothell company a $300 million grant and is now testing the team's rapid response.
"The Department of Defense gave us a viral or bacterial candidate and asked us to turn around a drug candidate as fast as we could," Garabedian said.
The company was contacted to find a cure during a real-life thriller in 2004.
"There was a lab accident where somebody was working with ebola and stuck themselves with a syringe contaminated with ebola virus," said Peter Linsley.
The worker was never infected and didn't need the drug that AVI developed within five days. The company claims it can't yet scale up to dosage numbers needed to battle a pandemic.
So far, the firm doesn't have any FDA-approved drugs but hopes with more safety testing they'll be on the front lines fighting killer bugs before they spread.
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