Microbix First Quarter Sales Grow Over 50% With Continued Progress On Th...( New manufacturing facility opening ...)

    New manufacturing facility opening in Second Quarter

TORONTO, Feb. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Microbix Biosystems Inc. (TSX:MBX) said today that despite a challenging year for the biopharmaceutical industry, it has maintained its focus and continued its advance toward the ultimate goal of sustained profitability. The Company was announcing results for the first quarter ended December 31, 2008.

In a news release today, William J. Gastle, CEO of Microbix said "the Company has improved the fundamentals of its core business and we are approaching major milestones in our product pipeline. We are waiting for the FDA to authorize release of Kinlytic inventory, our Urokinase product, we are in discussions with potential pharma partners for our Hunan (China) influenza vaccine business and we expect to provide guidance on the SST program as we near the end of the expanded sex specific protein investigation described in 2008."

    First Quarter Highlights

    Core Business

Growth was robust in the first quarter with sales improving over 50 per cent compared to the same quarter last year. "We exceeded our sales target in the first quarter," Mr. Gastle continued "and we are on a path to meet or exceed projections for this fiscal year. The Company will open its new facility in Mississauga, Ontario in March 2009 with significantly improved capacity.

VIRUSMAX(TM)

The Company is collaborating with a major firm to evaluate VIRUSMAX in their influenza vaccine manufacturing process in the second quarter. Preliminary results were promising and the evaluation has moved to the next phase at the partner's manufacturing facility.

We are pleased with the arrangement to form a manufacturing joint venture agreement to build and operate an influenza vaccine plant in China based on VIRUSMAX. We are making solid progress towards completing the pre-conditions that hav
'/>"/>