shares of vir biotechnology inc on tuesday rose 10 after the clinicalstage immunology company said it secured a multiyear contract from the us government to develop solutions to address influenza and potentially other infectious disease threats in premarket trading the stock was at 22 up from its close of 1996 on monday the shares have fallen more than 52 this year the contract could receive an investment of up to 1 billion vir biotechnology said the us governments biomedical advanced research and development authority part of the us department of health and human services administration for strategic preparedness and response will initially invest about 55 million in vir biotechnologys investigational monoclonal antibody vir2482 the company said seasonal influenza has caused about 500000 deaths a year worldwide in past years and 34000 deaths in the us vir biotechnology said