WILLOW ANNOUNCES ROLLOUT OF BioOxi PLATFORM PROVIDING VALUABLE AND EXPEDITED BIOCONVERSION-ENABLED CHEMICAL MANUFACTURING

Complements Company's significant expertise in existing strain engineering and precision fermentation

Offers commercial partners more rapid product innovation at significantly reduced cost by removing multiple chemical steps in producing oxygenated and hydroxylated functional ingredients

Creates additional business development opportunities and enables faster path to nearer-term revenue for Willow relative to legacy strain engineering applications

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., April 12, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - Willow Biosciences Inc. ("Willow" or the "Company") (TSX: WLLW) (OTCQB: CANSF), a leading biotechnology company focused on revolutionizing industrial manufacturing of pure, consistent and sustainable functional ingredients today announced the launch of BioOxi™, a bio-oxidation platform technology that is complementary to the Company's existing strain engineering and precision fermentation FutureGrown™ biotechnology platform. Through the Company's legacy expertise, Willow is now able to offer commercial partners both cost-effective production of ingredients through biosynthesis, and now through BioOxi, bioconversion-enabled chemical manufacturing of ingredients from defined intermediates with the benefit of removing multiple chemical steps and significantly reducing cost and resources.

"The launch of BioOxi is an exciting development in the history of Willow and represents the next strategic step to significantly diversify our portfolio and market opportunities with a keen focus on nearer term revenue generation," said, Dr. Chris Savile, Willow's President and CEO. "We see this new platform as posing a powerful, clean and cost-effective solution to our prospective partners' chemical manufacturing challenges that is highly complementary to our existing strain engineering and precision fermentation business. Based on our prior success in utilizing BioOxi to support our partners we believe it will lead to additional commercial agreements going forward."

Willow successfully used its BioOxi platform in development programs for partners such as Kalsec® Inc. for a previously announced November 2022 Master Services Agreement to develop and commercialize a precision fermentation production process for a high volume, natural food opportunity and, more recently, Willow further leveraged the successful application of BioOxi for engagements with Sandhill One, LLC to optimize a proprietary enzyme for a targeted product for the manufacturing of the large volume active pharmaceutical ingredient, ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA).

By leveraging BioOxi, commercial partners can revolutionize manufacturing of oxygenated and hydroxylated functional ingredients such as steroids, polyphenols, oxyterpenes and certain other targeted ingredients produced from such methods.

The launch of BioOxi broadens Willow's addressable total market opportunity and provides nearer-term revenue generation for BioOxi-related projects. Applications in this area take significantly less time to generate revenue as strain engineering applications and, in the Company's belief, produce more longer-term and sometimes larger revenue streams. Both types of offerings can result in licensing or royalty revenues for Willow.

Willow will pursue BioOxi programs through both internal and external investment, through astutely planned and strategically aligned programs that the Company anticipates will expand its product portfolio and partnerships toward improved company valuation.

Willow develops and produces precision fermented functional ingredients for the health and wellness, food and beverage and personal care markets. Willow's FutureGrownTM biotechnology platform allows large-scale production with sustainability at its core. Willow's R&D team has a proven track record of developing and commercializing bio-based manufacturing processes and products to benefit our B2B partners and their customers. For more information, visit www.willowbio.com.

FutureGrown™ and BioOxi™ are registered trademarks of Willow Biosciences Inc. All other trademarks referenced in this news release are trademarks of their respective holders.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may include forward-looking statements including opinions, assumptions, estimates and the Company's assessment of future plans and operations, and, more particularly, statements concerning: the BioOxi platform, including future internal and external programs utilizing the platform and the anticipated benefits of the platform, including reducing costs and resources and accelerating timelines; nearer term revenue generation opportunities; ability to enter into additional business development arrangements and commercial agreements; expansion of Willow's addressable market opportunity; the demand and market size potential of the synthetic ingredients industry; and the business plan of the Company, generally, including becoming a leader in precision fermentation, strain engineering, research and production of functional ingredients. When used in this news release, the words "will," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "intent," "may," "project," "should," and similar expressions are intended to be among the statements that identify forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements are founded on the basis of expectations and assumptions made by the Company which include, but are not limited to: the success of Willow's strategic partnerships, including the development of future strategic partnerships; the financial strength of the Company; the ability of the Company to fund its business plan using cash on hand and existing resources; the market for Willow's products; the ability of the Company to obtain and retain applicable licences; the ability of the Company to obtain suitable manufacturing partners and other strategic relationships; and the successful implementation of Willow's commercialization and production strategy, generally. Forward-looking statements are subject to a wide range of risks and uncertainties, and although the Company believes that the expectations represented by such forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will be realized. Any number of important factors could cause actual results biotechnology industry in general; the success of the Company's research and development strategies; infringement on intellectual property; failure to benefit from partnerships or successfully integrate acquisitions; actions and initiatives of federal and provincial governments and changes to government policies and the execution and impact of these actions, initiatives and policies; import/export and research restrictions for cannabinoid-based operations; the size of the medical-use and adult-use cannabinoid market; competition from other industry participants; adverse U.S., Canadian and global economic conditions; adverse global events and public-health crises, including the current COVID-19 outbreak; failure to comply with certain regulations; departure of key management personnel or inability to attract and retain talent; and other factors more fully described from time to time in the reports and filings made by the Company with securities regulatory authorities. Please refer to the Company's most recent annual information form and management's discussion and analysis for additional risk factors relating to Willow, which can be accessed either on Willow's website at www.willowbio.com or under the Company's profile on www.sedar.com.

Any financial outlook and future-oriented financial information contained in this document regarding prospective financial performance, corporate valuation, financial position, cash balances, investment, costs or revenue is based on assumptions about future events, including economic conditions and proposed courses of action based on management's assessment of the relevant information that is currently available. Projected operational information contains forward-looking information and is based on a number of material assumptions and factors, as are set out above. These projections may also be considered to contain future-oriented financial information or a financial outlook. The actual results of the Company's operations for any period will likely vary from the amounts set forth in these projections and such variations may be material. Actual results will vary from projected results. Readers are cautioned that any such financial outlook and future-oriented financial information contained herein should not be used for purposes other than those for which it is disclosed herein.

The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and the Company does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the included forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable law. The forward-looking statements contained herein are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

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SOURCE Willow Biosciences Inc.