ArcticZymes' Salt Active Nuclease High Quality (SAN-HQ) enzyme offers gene therapy and vaccine customers a more cost effective and technically superior solution for removing contaminating DNA during the manufacturing process of therapeutic viruses. The project will accelerate ongoing efforts to scale production capacity and is estimated to be completed within 8-10 months.

The company entered the therapeutic segment with its SAN portfolio in 2016. Since then it has rapidly grown its customer base, and in 2019 sales revenues accounted for 25% of total sales. Customers initially start out purchasing small quantities of SAN-HQ, and then quickly scale their manufacturing in order to achieve the batch sizes required for pre-commercial and future commercial requirements. Furthermore, supply of SAN-HQ has the potential to be expanded into our partners developing viral based vaccines against COVID-19.

The growing demand of the SAN-HQ enzyme requires a timely effort to scale the manufacturing of the enzyme in order to seamlessly cater for longer-term customer supply.

ArcticZymes AS, CEO, Jethro Holter said:

"ArcticZymes has quickly achieved a strong commercial foothold in therapeutics by offering gene therapy and vaccine manufacturers unique enzyme technologies to streamline their production processes. This project will ensure that ArcticZymes accelerates its efforts to scale SAN-HQ manufacturing to satisfy growing commercial demand. We are grateful to Innovation Norway for supporting the project and recognizing its underlying value. The funding enables ArcticZymes to invest in more resources and fast track its endeavours to further scale SAN-HQ production and expand its support towards COVID-19 initiatives."

Thomas Stien, Financial advisor, Innovation Norway, added:

"As part of the Norwegian government's efforts to limit the effects of the coronavirus eruption, Innovation Norway has been given an increased limit for innovation grants aimed at companies with growth ambitions. The grant will help companies continue to pursue good innovation projects - or facilitate new ones.

This project shows that ArcticZymes sees the opportunity in the situation and prepares to deal with the challenges in a longer perspective - both to strengthen the company's competitiveness and to prepare for further growth."

-ENDS-

For more information, please contact:

Dr Jethro Holter, CEO Tel: +47 46 85 91 46
Email: Jethro.Holter@biotec.no

About Biotec Pharmacon ASA

Biotec Pharmacon is a Norwegian life sciences company focused on specialized, novel enzyme and immunomodulating beta-glucan technology.

The Biotec Pharmacon Group is creating value from innovation in life science markets via its subsidiaries, ArcticZymes and Biotec BetaGlucans. Its technologies capitalize on more than three decades of world-class research at the Arctic University of Tromsø to offer niche and high-tech products in several biotech segments.

For more information, please visit the website: www.biotec.no.

About ArcticZymes

ArcticZymes develops, produces and markets novel recombinant enzymes for use in molecular research, In Vitro Diagnostics (IVD) and therapeutics.

The Company focuses on novel and high-quality enzyme technologies in growth markets where rapid technological developments are creating a strong demand for new and improved enzymes. Some of its enzymes' unique features include heat lability and activity in challenging environments as well as customized, engineered novel features which can be integrated to power the technologies of commercial partners.

All ArcticZymes products are ISO13485 certified.

For more information, please visit: www.arcticzymes.com