Applied DNA and Integrated Supply Chain Partners Scale Up to Provide Global Material Traceability for Companies Declaring "2020" Sustainability Goals

Applied DNA Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: APDN) (“Applied DNA” or the “Company”), provides an update today on its accomplishments toward commercial-scale production to support global material traceability for companies declaring sustainability goals to be achieved by 2020. High on the consumer watchlist is the plastics recycling issue. Applied DNA’s CertainT^® platform provides the evidence that recycled product is used. CertainT-verifiable products are now available through supply chain partners and brands, including Amazon and other e-commerce and retail stores, with outlook for growth as product flows to store shelves. The CertainT platform and forensic services were conceived to empower companies with the most advanced commercially-scalable and affordable technologies to help prove their compliance with stated sustainability goals.

The CertainT “Tag-Test-Track platform enables companies and their supply chains to designate a unique molecular identity tag that has meaning specific to the tagged material: for example, geographic facility location, brand, product line or even date of manufacture. This tag can be applied on or in a variety of recycled materials that includes a wide range of polymers such as PET (polyethylene terephthalate), polypropylene, polyethylene, acrylics, and many more. The tags are then tested either in the field or in the lab, depending on material type and customer requirements. Portable DNA testing devices for tagged pellets are deployed for textiles made of recycled PET and viscose. The tracking of tagged items and their test reports can be accessed by customers from the cloud-based CertainT Textile Portal.

Since the launch of the CertainT platform in July 2017, many companies have recognized the value of having global material traceability, and having the ability to prove, with certainty, the claim for 100% rPET filament yarn used in many performance-wear, athleisure products, footwear, accessories and home textile products. While the CertainT platform was initially used for rPET staple fibers in the home textile industry, there subsequently grew a much greater opportunity to expand into apparel, footwear and accessories through rPET filament.

From 2018 ongoing, the Company is working with trusted supply chain partners to build the large-scale, closed loop, integrated supply chains that use rPET filament and fiber to service businesses in Asia, the Americas and EMEA. This business model is instrumental to building critical mass with our partners, enabling efficient, cost-effective, agile supply chains.

“We decided to “Go Big, Go Bold” in 2019 by accelerating the implementation of rPET filament in China, Vietnam, Taiwan, India and South-East Asia. We believe the opportunity to have a molecular business solution that will protect brands from source to shelf can be achieved only with CertainT. We are in the process of building a thoroughly integrated supply chain which will close the loop and provide forensic proof through each touch point in the process,” stated Wayne Buchen, vice president, strategic sales.

Specifically, the Company began with the establishment of a network of key strategic partners, starting with the Sun Chemical Supply Group (“Sun”), announced in January this year. Sun has already provided the capability to accelerate the delivery of recycled polyester (rPET) by maintaining inventory and warehousing of raw materials to shorten lead-times, providing quick response to meet the local needs of language, import/export experience and other operational business practices. By working in collaboration with Sun in the past 6 months, the Company has been able to identify, begin integration and conduct commercial and pre-commercial manufacturing of hundreds of tons of fiber and filament with key supply chain partners that include spinners, weavers, home textile and garment assemblers, and accessories manufacturers.

“We are excited to bring the CertainT platform to the Asian market as sustainability with traceability continues to build into 2020 and beyond. Our teams have been working diligently in China, Taiwan, and Vietnam with the Applied DNA US and EMEA teams to accelerate the adoption of CertainT globally,” stated David Lai, CEO of The Sun Chemical Supply Group.

Estimates by Grand View Research indicate that the global rPET market is anticipated to reach USD $11.40 billion by 2025. Asia Pacific countries such as China, India, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, and the Philippines have been stimulating the growth of the rPET market as indicated by key findings from the report:

• In terms of revenue, Asia Pacific dominated the overall recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) market. It is anticipated to exhibit a CAGR of 7.4% over the forecast period.
• North America is expected to witness a CAGR of 7.8% over the forecast period, owing to its broad application scope in several key end-use industries such as fast-moving consumer goods, consumer goods, clothing and textiles, and automobiles.

Sustainability goals are not a means to an end, but the start of an era of accountability and traceability. Nonprofit organizations such as the Ellen MacArthur Foundation routinely publish reports on plastics pollution and hold some of the world’s largest brands to a pledge of reduction or elimination of unnecessary plastic packaging and the use of recycled materials.

“The growth in the CertainT platform is fueled by the need for recycled polyester (“rPET”); not everyone is playing by the same rules to ensure the claim is 100% post-consumer rPET that is both high quality and low cost. Many fiber suppliers claim 100% post-consumer rPET, but those claims are based on paper certificates, and not on the product itself,” stated MeiLin Wan, vice president, textile sales. “Applied DNA, through its CertainT Platform, provides evidence enabling greater transparency from corporations and NGOs, offering confidence to the consuming public, to prove sustainability claims, and in turn, provide a positive impact on environmental and social issues.”

About Applied DNA Sciences

Applied DNA is a provider of molecular technologies that enable supply chain security, anti-counterfeiting and anti-theft technology, product genotyping and pre-clinical nucleic acid-based therapeutic drug candidates.

Applied DNA makes life real and safe by providing innovative, molecular-based technology solutions and services that can help protect products, brands, entire supply chains, and intellectual property of companies, governments and consumers from theft, counterfeiting, fraud and diversion.

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Common stock listed on NASDAQ under the symbol APDN, and warrants are listed under the symbol APDNW.

Forward-Looking Statements

The statements made by Applied DNA in this press release may be “forward-looking” in nature within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements describe Applied DNA’s future plans, projections, strategies and expectations, and are based on assumptions and involve a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of Applied DNA. Actual results could differ materially from those projected due to its history of net losses, limited financial resources, limited market acceptance, ability to maintain its NASDAQ listing and various other factors detailed from time to time in Applied DNA’s SEC reports and filings, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on December 18, 2018 and our subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q filed on February 7, 2019 and May 9, 2019, and other reports we file with the SEC, which are available at www.sec.gov. Applied DNA undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, events or circumstances after the date hereof to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, unless otherwise required by law.

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