BOTHELL, WA--(Marketwire - Mar 27, 2012) - AVI BioPharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: [ AVII ]), a developer of RNA-based therapeutics, announced today that the Company is scheduled to present at the 11th Annual Needham Healthcare Conference in New York, NY on Tuesday, April 3, at 2:40 p.m. Eastern Time. Chris Garabedian, AVI's president and CEO, will provide a company overview.

The presentation will be webcast live under the events section of AVI's website at [ www.avibio.com ] and will be archived there following the presentation for 90 days. Please connect to AVI's website several minutes prior to the start of the broadcast to ensure adequate time for any software download that may be necessary.

About AVI BioPharma
AVI BioPharma is focused on the discovery and development of novel RNA-based therapeutics for rare and infectious diseases, as well as other select disease targets. Applying pioneering technologies developed and optimized by AVI, the Company is able to target a broad range of diseases and disorders through distinct RNA-based mechanisms of action. Unlike other RNA-based approaches, AVI's technologies can be used to directly target both messenger RNA (mRNA) and precursor messenger RNA (pre-mRNA) to either down-regulate (inhibit) or up-regulate (promote) the expression of targeted genes or proteins. By leveraging its highly differentiated RNA-based technology platform, AVI has built a pipeline of potentially transformative therapeutic agents, including eteplirsen, which is in clinical development for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and multiple drug candidates that are in clinical development for the treatment of infectious disease. For more information, please visit [ www.avibio.com ].