Company announces agreement with Antibióticos S.A. for production of Mirel biopolymer resin.

Metabolix, Inc.,(www.metabolix.com) an innovation-driven bioscience company focused on delivering sustainable solutions for plastics, chemicals and energy, announces that it has signed a letter of intent ("LOI") withAntibioticos S.A.(www.antibioticos-sa.com) for production of MirelTM biopolymer resin at its manufacturing facility in Leon, Spain.

Under the terms of the LOI, Metabolix will begin work immediately with Antibioticos to conduct a series of validation production runs to demonstrate fermentation and recovery of Mirel biopolymer resin on full production-scale equipment at Antibioticos. The companies plan to enter into a definitive contract manufacturing agreement for Mirel biopolymers based upon the validation production runs as well as completion of economic and engineering feasibility studies. Metabolix will own the Mirel biopolymer resin produced during the validation production runs.  

"The agreement with Antibioticos represents a significant step forward in establishing a new supply chain for Mirel biopolymers to serve our customers worldwide and to continue product development in high value-added applications," says Richard P. Eno, president and chief executive officer of Metabolix. "In addition, Antibioticos is located in the European Union near many of our targeted customers. We are impressed with the track record, technical expertise and facilities at Antibioticos, and believe their equipment is well-suited to the manufacturing process used to produce Mirel biopolymers at commercial scale."  

"This agreement brings together our experience and technical capacity with Metabolix's technology and processes in a way that supports the values and vision of both companies," says Daniele Pucci Di Benisichi, president of Antibioticos. "The first step of our work with Metabolix will be to validate their technology in our facility. Then, we'll look ahead to creating a contract manufacturing agreement. Antibioticos follows a very demanding and selective approach for new projects and partners, and we're particularly pleased to be working with Metabolix to deepen our work in sustainable technologies and diversify our business portfolio."  

Metabolix's biopolymers are based on polyhydroxyalkanoates ("PHA") which occur naturally in micro-organisms and plants. Mirel biopolymers are biobased, uniquely biodegradable, and suitable for a wide range of product applications. Metabolix has previously demonstrated production of Mirel biopolymer resin at industrial scale. Metabolix is currently supplying Mirel biopolymer resin to customers from existing inventory of approximately 5 million pounds.