Ginkgo Bioworks and Amyris Partner to Accelerate Commercialization of Bio-Based Products


The leading organism company and the leading industrial bioscience company collaborate on combined portfolio of 70 cultured ingredients

Teleconference to be Held Thursday, June 30, 2016 at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time

EMERYVILLE, Calif. and BOSTON, June 29, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ginkgo Bioworks, the organism company, and Amyris, Inc. (Nasdaq:AMRS), the industrial bioscience company announced a new partnership, which will enable the companies to jointly develop products more efficiently and cost effectively, accelerating time to market. This breakthrough biotech partnership creates clear leadership with a combined offering that has successfully introduced more bio-based products than any other company known in the field. The combined R&D capabilities of Ginkgo and Amyris put both partners at a significant advantage in the industry by leveraging the joint end-to-end technology platform. This partnership is expected to deliver more new cultured ingredients into the global market in the next three years than the total industry has achieved in the last 10 years.

“Ginkgo and Amyris working together sets the gold standard for the industrial biotechnology industry,” said Jason Kelly, CEO of Ginkgo Bioworks. “Each company is seeing more customer demand for cultured ingredient partnerships than could be handled individually. By sharing our assets, expertise and experience we can offer more customers access to the industry-leading technology platform.”

As part of the deal, Ginkgo Bioworks will broaden the capacity of Amyris’s strain engineering by providing access to its world-class foundry; Amyris will provide Ginkgo Bioworks scale up expertise and access to the world’s only commercial scale multi-product fermentation facility that has manufactured more cultured ingredients than any other known entity. Together, the two companies will have more than 70 products under contract for delivery to the world’s leading brands across industrial, health and personal care markets. Over the next three years, the two companies expect to move at least 20 additional products through to manufacturing and delivery to customers.

Ginkgo is currently building Bioworks2, a next-generation automated foundry where Ginkgo’s organism engineers can develop new designs at massive scale. The 25,000 square-foot automated facility is used to build and test prototypes of engineered microbes. It is the company’s second, representing a technology leap from Bioworks1, which opened in early 2015.

Amyris has demonstrated clear leadership in the industry of scaling engineered organisms and delivering breakthrough products to its customers. The company’s fermentation facility in Brazil is highly advantaged for the manufacturing of fermentation products.

“Amyris has successfully commercialized five products from highly engineered organisms, disrupting markets from skin care and fragrances to industrial lubricants, tires and jet fuel,” said John Melo, CEO of Amyris. “For industrial biotechnology to deliver on the promise of providing high-performance, sustainable solutions for a growing world, we need a faster and more predictable approach to deliver products to customers. In partnership, the two companies have the leading product and customer portfolio and will accelerate the time to market for products from both companies. The anticipated growth of new products in the coming years will prove that industrial biotechnology’s time has arrived.”

As part of the partnership, the two companies will share in the value of new collaborations and products brought to market. This partnership is expected to generate over $300 million in incremental value for both companies over the next 5 years. Refer to Amyris’s Form 8-K, dated June 29, 2016, for further description of the key terms of the partnership.

Teleconference to be held June 30, 2016 at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time

In conjunction with this announcement, Ginkgo Bioworks and Amyris will host a joint conference call with the investment community to discuss the partnership at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, June 30, 2016. Media are invited to attend in listen-only mode and both companies will make representatives available to media for follow-up questions and interviews. A live audio webcast and replay of the call will be available on the Investor Relations section of the Amyris web site at http://investors.amyris.com.

Dial-in Number:

(866) 516-3867 (U.S. & International)
Access Code: 43239657

About Amyris

Amyris is the integrated renewable products company that is enabling the world’s leading brands to achieve sustainable growth. Amyris applies its innovative bioscience solutions to convert plant sugars into hydrocarbon molecules, specialty ingredients and consumer products. The company is delivering its No Compromise® products in focused markets, including specialty and performance chemicals, fragrance ingredients, and cosmetic emollients. More information about the company is available at www.amyris.com.

About Ginkgo Bioworks

Ginkgo Bioworks is an organism design company that is building organisms to specification for customers across a variety of markets including food, health, and consumer goods. The company’s organism engineers work directly with customers, including Fortune 500 companies, to design microbes for their specific needs. The company was founded in 2008 by Tom Knight, a world-renowned computer scientist, and MIT biological engineering PhDs Jason Kelly, Reshma Shetty, Barry Canton and Austin Che. Ginkgo Bioworks is based in Boston and is financially backed by Viking Global Investors, Senator Investment Group, Cascade Investment, Baillie Gifford, Felicis Ventures, OS Fund and Y Combinator, as well as other funds. For more information, visit www.ginkgobioworks.com or follow our Twitter feed at twitter.com/Ginkgoo.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements, and any statements other than statements of historical facts could be deemed to be forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements regarding future events (such as the anticipated ability of the companies to jointly develop products more efficiently and cost effectively under the partnership, accelerating time to market, the number of new products expected to be brought to market pursuant to the partnership, the anticipated ability of the companies to offer more customers access to their technology platform, the anticipated expansion of the capacity of Amyris’s strain engineering, the expected incremental value to be generated under the partnership, the anticipated achievement of a faster and more predictable approach to product delivery under the partnership, and the anticipated growth of new products under the partnership) that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on management’s current expectations and actual results and future events may differ materially due to risks and uncertainties, including, among other things, the company’s liquidity and ability to fund operating and capital expenses, timing and execution risks associated with manufacturing, potential delays or failures in development, production and commercialization of products, Amyris’s reliance on third parties to achieve its goals, and other risks detailed in the “Risk Factors” section of Amyris’s quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed on May 10, 2016. Amyris disclaims any obligation to update information contained in these forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Amyris and the Amyris logo are registered trademarks of Amyris, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.


            

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