AVI BioPharma shares up on positive Ebola treatment studies

(Reuters) - Shares of AVI BioPharma Inc (AVII.O) rose almost 7 percent on Monday, following the publication of positive data of the company's experimental treatments for the Ebola and Marburg viruses in animal studies.

U.S. army researchers found infected monkeys treated with AVI BioPharma's drugs showed a 60 percent survival rate in monkeys with the Ebola virus and 100 percent survival in those with the related Marburg virus, a report published in Nature Medicine said.

The Ebola virus is associated with periodic outbreaks of hemorrhagic fever in central Africa, for which there is no current cure.

AVI has a contract with the U.S. Department of Defense, worth up to $291 million, for developing treatments for the Ebola virus.

Shares of the Bothell, Washington-based company, which have risen more than 25 percent since mid-July, when it announced the contract with the U.S. Department of Defense, were trading up 9 cents at $2.13 Monday morning on Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Suzannah Benjamin in Bangalore; Editing by Roshni Menon)