iBio Forms Marketing Collaboration With Kanematsu Chemicals Corporation to Target Japanese Market

NEWARK, DE--(Marketwired - Aug 14, 2014) - iBio, Inc. (NYSE MKT: IBIO), and Kanematsu Chemicals Corporation, part of Kanematsu Corporation (TSE: 8020), have entered into a collaboration agreement under which Kanematsu Chemicals Corporation will market the novel iBioLaunch™ platform in Japan.

The collaboration combines iBio's plant-based expression system and expertise for rapid, reliable and economical development and production of biological vaccines and therapeutics, with the marketing reach and regional expertise of the life science group from Kanematsu Chemicals Corporation. 

"The pharmaceutical business is one of the core businesses in which we are expecting further expansion, and the collaboration with iBio will lead Kanematsu Chemicals Corporation to its success," said Kazuyuki Matsunaga, president of Kanematsu Chemicals Corporation. "iBioLaunch has great potential to solve existing issues in the development and production of these products for the Japanese and export markets. We are very excited to start introducing this excellent technology to the Japanese pharmaceutical industry."

Japan commands 9% of global biologics sales (led only by the U.S. and the EU), a global market that is expected to grow to over $220 billion by 2019, according to TriMark Publications.

Biologics can be categorized in three main groups: monoclonal antibodies, other therapeutic proteins, and vaccines. The iBioLaunch platform has been validated for production of each of these biologics categories. The iBioLaunch platform can enable companies producing either novel biologics or biosimilars to achieve competitive advantages over other expression systems due to its various attributes, including lower costs and scalability.

"This agreement is an important part of our strategy to commercialize iBio's proprietary technologies through collaboration with world-class partners," said Robert Erwin, iBio's president. "Together, Kanematsu Chemicals Corporation and iBio expect to bring the benefits of the unique enabling features of the iBioLaunch platform to the most innovative companies and important biologic products in the Japanese pharmaceutical industry."

About Kanematsu Chemicals Corporation
Kanematsu Chemicals Corporation was established in 1974 and is a Japanese trading company specialized in chemical fields. It is one of the 100% subsidiaries of Kanematsu Corporation. http://www.kccjp.co.jp/English/E_index.html

About iBio, Inc.
iBio develops and offers proprietary products and product licenses, based on its proprietary iBioLaunch and iBioModulator™ platforms, providing collaborators full support for turn-key implementation of its technology for protein therapeutics and vaccines. In Brazil, iBio has been collaborating with Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) and Fraunhofer Center for Molecular Biotechnology since 2011 to develop a recombinant yellow fever vaccine based upon iBio technology. In 2013, iBio established a subsidiary company in Brazil to accelerate development and commercialization of biosimilar therapeutic products.

The iBioLaunch platform is a proprietary, transformative technology for development and production of biologics using transient gene expression in unmodified green plants. The iBioModulator platform is complementary to the iBioLaunch platform and designed to significantly improve vaccine products with both higher potency and greater duration of effect. The iBioModulator platform can be used with any recombinant expression technology for vaccine development and production.

iBio uses its proprietary technology for its own innovative product portfolio including advancement of a potentially breakthrough biotherapeutic product against otherwise unstoppable fibrotic diseases such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and systemic sclerosis. Further information is available at: www.ibioinc.com.

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