Tekmira pharmaceutical specializes in the advancement of therapeutic agents in the field of gene silencing, known as RNA interference (RNAi).
Tekmira has received a $150 million contract to develop RNAi Therapeutic against Ebula virus. Out of this money $34.7 million of it is disbursed during the initial phase over the next three years. “This work builds on our recently published research, where we reported that Ebola SNALP could confer complete protection to nonhuman primates from a lethal dose of Ebola virus,” Mark J. Murray, Ph.D., Tekmira’s president and CEO.
This whole contract is funded by Transformational Medical Technologies (TMT) program. This program was designed by The Department of Defense in 2006 to better prepare and protect the warfighter and the nation from emerging, genetically engineered, and unknown biothreat agents.
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