Bio-based Plastics: Steady Growth Propels Metabolix, Inc. into Larger Quarters<br />

New facilities mark company's progress in industrial biotechnology

BOSTON, June 15 /PRNewswire/ — Metabolix, Inc. announces the relocation of its corporate headquarters and research and development to a 28,000-square- foot facility at 21 Erie Street, Cambridge, MA. With this expanded laboratory and office space, Metabolix is poised to continue to grow its research, process development, and applications development efforts as the company commercializes its new, high-performing, renewable, bio-based PHA plastics.

Metabolix’s PHAs are a broad and versatile family of sustainable, bio-based plastics, made from renewable plant sugars and oils rather than petrochemical feedstocks. They range in properties from rigid to highly elastic, making them suitable for film, fiber, adhesives, coatings, and molded goods. Although PHAs are stable even to boiling water, once their use is over they biodegrade in fresh and marine water, soil, composting, and anaerobic environments. This makes them ideal candidates for a broad range of applications.

Metabolix is focused on commercializing PHA bio-based materials made via highly efficient microbial fermentation. Longer term, the company aims to couple production of PHA materials and biomass-based energy and fuels by producing PHAs directly in green plants, and has funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Energy to develop this pathbreaking capability.

About Metabolix, Inc.
Founded in 1992, Metabolix, Inc. uses sophisticated biotechnology to produce environmentally friendly performance plastics from renewable resources. Metabolix is the world leader in applying the advanced tools of metabolic engineering and molecular biology to efficiently produce PHA bio- based plastics in microbial systems and directly in non-food plant crops. The privately held company is currently commercializing fermentation-based PHAs in applications where they provide unique performance benefits. The company has received both private and government funding for its pathbreaking technology, and is in a collaborative arrangement with BASF to explore applications for its PHA bio-based plastics. For more information, please contact us or visit http://www.metabolix.com.

Source

Yahoo!Finance vom 2004-06-15.

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