Medicago awarded contract by the U.S. Army to explore applications of its plant-based technology in renewable energy

	    QUEBEC CITY, Oct. 8 /CNW/ - 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. Vézina, 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."

	    About Medicago

	    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 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.