Medicago receives contract from U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command laboratory

Oct 9 2009

Medicago Inc. (TSX-V: MDG), a biotechnology company focused on developing highly effective and affordable vaccines based on proprietary manufacturing technologies and Virus-Like Particles (VLPs), today announced that it has been awarded a proof of concept contract by the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command laboratory specifically the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center ("ECBC") Research & Technology Directorate.

Medicago will work with ECBC to investigate the affordable production of industrial enzymes in the field of biofuels. This new project builds on Medicago's proprietary plant-based manufacturing platform and its potential for applications beyond the biological drug market.

"While we remain focused on advancing our core influenza programs, biotechnology markets are quickly evolving and offer new opportunities to increase shareholder value," said Louis P. Vezina, Chief Scientific Officer of Medicago. "The world enzyme market is currently estimated to be worth US$4 billion and is projected to increase 5.7% per year. Moreover, the high cost of enzymes is a major hurdle in the production of biofuels using biomass. We believe our manufacturing platform could be suitable for the production of affordable enzymes as plants are uniquely capable of efficient protein expression at high yields and low costs. We look forward to playing a role in the U.S. Army's efforts to accelerate the economical production of biofuels."