New Joint Venture To Build Asia’s Largest Influenza Vaccine Facility

Microbix, (TSX:MBX) a Canadian developer of a patented technology that increases influenza vaccine yields, has signed a joint venture agreement with the Hunan Biopharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (a Chinese Hunan Province state-owned enterprise) for initial financing to build Asia’s largest influenza vaccine production facility and the third largest vaccine plant in the world. A newly formed joint venture will build and operate a $200-million facility, located in Changsha National Biomedical Park near Changsha City, the capital of Hunan Province. Production facility will have the capacity to produce more than 100 million doses of seasonal influenza vaccine annually, and up to 300 million doses of a pandemic influenza vaccine in the event of an outbreak to immunize against a single strain of influenza.

The facility, for which construction will begin in early 2010 and be fully operational by 2013, will be designed around Microbix VIRUSMAX(TM) vaccine technology. More than five years in development at Microbix, VIRUSMAX is designed to increase influenza vaccine yields and has demonstrated an average yield increase of two-fold over current production methods.

“We’re pleased that our innovative VIRUSMAX influenza vaccine technology will contribute significantly to seasonal and pandemic influenza preparedness in the future. This facility will make China an important source of influenza vaccine in the Asia region as well as offering significant capacity for the Chinese market which is growing significantly. In five years, the China market is expected to demand up to 500 million influenza vaccine doses annually,” said William J. Gastle, Microbix Chairman and CEO.

Currently only two percent of the China population is immunized against flu, while the World Health Organization recommends that countries have the capacity to vaccinate at least 60 percent of their populations. As the project progresses, Hunan will provide additional funding through debt and has guaranteed the purchase of 100 million influenza vaccine doses. On all vaccine produced at the facility, Microbix will receive royalty payments and hold exclusive marketing rights outside of China.

Later on the Microbix-Hunan facility will seek approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency for its influenza vaccines.