LAVAL, QUEBEC--(Marketwired - Feb. 6, 2014) - ProMetic Life Sciences Inc. (TSX:PLI)(OTCQX:PFSCF), ("ProMetic" or the "Corporation") announced today that its UK based subsidiary, ProMetic BioSciences Ltd. ("PBL"), has entered into a new agreement with a leading vaccines company, for the development of an affinity adsorbent and associated purification process for the production of a novel vaccine product.

Under this new Agreement, PBL will use its ligand design and screening capabilities to identify Mimetic™ affinity ligand(s) with the ability to capture and purify the novel vaccine product. Once suitable ligands have been identified, they will be further developed to provide an affinity resin product and associated process conditions to be used in commercial vaccine manufacturing by PBL's client.

The Agreement is structured to provide ProMetic with potential initial service revenues of up to $1.6 million over the next twelve months assuming successful completion of ongoing milestones, with work commencing immediately. This agreement is also anticipated to lead to a subsequent long-term agreement for the manufacture and supply of the affinity resin for use in scale-up and commercial production of the vaccine product.

"ProMetic's state-of-the-art affinity technology has demonstrated capability to develop affinity purification solutions for almost any target biomolecule including genetically engineered viral surface proteins which form the basis of a growing number of vaccine products" said Dr. Steve Burton, PBL's Chief Executive Officer. "Vaccines are produced in large quantities and must be highly purified to avoid any unwanted side-effects which are generally considered to be unacceptable in the case of a therapeutic product given to healthy individuals to protect against viral infection" added Dr Burton.

"We are pleased to be adding a new client for which we will have the opportunity to demonstrate the outstanding performance of our purification technologies", mentioned Mr. Pierre Laurin, President and Chief Executive Officer of ProMetic. "We believe our bioseparation solutions to be especially well suited for the purification of products manufactured in large quantities given the superior purification yield and economic advantages they provide", added Mr. Laurin. 

About ProMetic Life Sciences Inc.

ProMetic Life Sciences Inc. (www.prometic.com) is a long established biopharmaceutical company with globally recognized expertise in bioseparations, plasma-derived therapeutics and small-molecule drug development. ProMetic offers its state of the art technologies for large-scale purification of biologics, drug development, proteomics and the elimination of pathogens to a growing base of industry leaders and uses its own affinity technology that provides for highly efficient extraction and purification of therapeutic proteins from human plasma in order to develop best-in-class therapeutics and orphan drugs. ProMetic is also active in developing its own novel small-molecule therapeutic products targeting unmet medical needs in the field of fibrosis, cancer and autoimmune diseases/inflammation. Headquartered in Laval (Canada), ProMetic has R&D facilities in the UK, the U.S. and Canada, manufacturing facilities in the UK and business development activities in the U.S., Europe and Asia.