development & production

Commercialization of protein-based vaccines & biopharmaceuticals

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posted on Feb 07, 2008 06:29AM

Medicago signs second licensing agreement with Fortune 100 Company

QUEBEC CITY, Feb. 7, 2008 (Canada NewsWire via COMTEX News Network) --

Medicago Inc. (TSX-V: MDG) (the "Company"), today announced that it has entered into a second, non-exclusive licensing agreement (the "Agreement") with an undisclosed Fortune 100 Company (the "Partner") for the development and commercialization of the Company's proprietary plant-based production technology (the "Technology"). Medicago will receive an upfront payment of $1,500,000 and a payment of $500,000 upon attainment of an important milestone.

"The value and benefits of our unique technology have allowed us to continue to build and expand our collaborations with this leading Fortune 100 Company," said Andy Sheldon, Chief Executive Officer of Medicago. We look forward to working closely with our Partner to accelerate development of this technology and the therapeutic protein that was the subject of our initial agreement. Our proprietary transient expression system has the ability to produce recombinant proteins in the cells of non-transgenic plants, speeding up time to market and commercialization."

"This new Agreement validates the attractiveness of our technology platform to leading companies and highlights Medicago's ability to create additional value for shareholders via non-exclusive collaborations as well as research and development technology licenses," said Randal Chase, Chairman of the Board of Medicago.

Under the terms of the Agreement, Medicago will grant the Partner 2,000,000 common share purchase warrants. Each warrant entitles the Partner the right to acquire one common share of Medicago for a period of three years following the execution of the Agreement, at an exercise price of 15% over the market price at the time of execution of this Agreement, during the first year, increased by 10% for each of the following two years.

The Company's pipeline of influenza vaccines is excluded from this license but the Agreement provides for additional partnership opportunities including co-development and additional funding opportunities for Medicago's current and future projects.

About Medicago Inc.

Medicago is committed to provide highly effective and affordable vaccines based on proprietary Virus-Like Particle (VLP) and manufacturing technologies. Medicago is developing VLP vaccines to protect against H5N1 pandemic influenza, using a transient expression system which produces recombinant vaccine antigens in the cells of non-transgenic plants. This technology has potential to offer advantages of speed and cost over competitive technologies. It could deliver a vaccine for testing in about a month after the identification and reception of genetic sequences from a pandemic strain. This production time frame has the potential to allow vaccination of the population before the first wave of a pandemic strikes and to supply large volumes of vaccine antigens to the world market.

Additional information about Medicago is available at www.medicago.com.

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