Ceapro Signs Another Partnership With Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) for the Commercial Development of its Flagship Product
EDMONTON, ALBERTA -- (Marketwire) -- 11/14/12 -- Following a press conference held yesterday with The Honourable Laurie Hawn, Member of Parliament for Edmonton Centre, Ceapro Inc. (TSX VENTURE: CZO) ("Ceapro" or the Company") is pleased to announce that it has signed a Letter of Intent with AAFC to collaborate in the commercial development of a unique variety of oats developed by AAFC. This new variety of oats will enable Ceapro to extract larger quantities of its flagship product, avenanthramides, which are bio-active compounds exclusively found in oats in very small quantities.
This Letter of Intent follows an earlier announcement in May 2012 of a sole-licensing agreement signed between Ceapro and AAFC for the exclusive use by Ceapro of an innovative AAFC-patented malting technology that dramatically increase the concentration of avenanthramides in oats.
Avenanthramides are included in well known brands of cosmetic and personal care formulations. They are the active ingredients responsible for the observed anti-itching and anti-irritating beneficial effects for the skin.
Ceapro scientists were the first to identify the link between the traditional symptomatic relief from oatmeal and the clinical activity resulting from the demonstrated anti-allergic and anti-inflammatory properties of avenanthramides.
Ceapro is the Company that has developed a unique, proprietary expertise in extracting and purifying these compounds and is the only commercial manufacturer worldwide. However, the small quantity of available quality feedstock have only allowed Ceapro to extract small volumes of avenanthramides which has so far limited the markets to cosmetic and personal care applications in dermatology. These two agreements signed with AAFC will change this situation.
"Not only have we licensed a methodology to increase the concentrations of avenanthramides in oats, we now have access to a unique and new variety of oat that should significantly improve our manufacturing productivity. Given our stated objective to penetrate large markets like functional food, nutraceuticals and potentially pharmaceuticals in this new era of "botanical drugs", it was imperative to be in a position to produce larger quantities and higher concentrations of avenanthramides to enable us to meet our objective "said Gilles Gagnon, President and CEO. "We are very pleased with this partnership with our Canadian Government who is allowing us to transition research on avenanthramides to promising commercial applications" he added.
"We are very excited that AAFC has again recognized Ceapro as the worldwide expert with the unique ability to rapidly develop and commercialize this new oat variety that not only will be a benefit to Canadian farmers, but also provide potential health care benefits for Canadians. We expect to make it a big Canadian success story" said David Fielder, Chief Scientific Officer.
About Ceapro Inc.
Ceapro Inc. is a Canadian growth-stage biotechnology company. Primary business activities relate to the development and commercialization of active ingredients for personal care and cosmetic industries using proprietary technology and natural, renewable resources. The commercial line of natural active ingredients include beta glucan, avenanthamides (colloidal oat extract), oat powder, oat oil, oat peptides, and lupin peptides.
To learn more about Ceapro, visit www.ceapro.com.
The TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provide (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Contacts: Branko Jankovic Chief Financial Officer Ceapro Inc. 780.917.8376 (Edmonton) bjankovic@ceapro.com www.ceapro.com
Source: Ceapro Inc.
Released November 14, 2012