OTTAWA, June 25, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Avivagen Inc. (TSXV:VIV) (“Avivagen” or the “Corporation”), a life sciences corporation focused on developing and commercializing products for livestock, companion animal and human applications that, by safely supporting immune function, promote general health and performance, is pleased to announce that its partner in the Philippines, UNAHCO, has purchased its single largest order of OxC-beta™ Livestock. The order, which is for 2 metric tonnes (2,000kg) of OxC-beta™ Livestock, represents UNAHCO’s single largest purchase to date, and follows an order of 1.2 tonnes delivered to UNAHCO in April, 2018.

UNAHCO continues to see increased adoption and acceptance of Avivagen’s OxC-beta™ Livestock product and this new, significant purchase is a validation from UNAHCO’s customers of the positive results from the adoption of OxC-beta™ Livestock. UNAHCO continues to reaffirm its intention of making quarterly purchases of OxC-beta™ Livestock, resulting in a growing and recurring revenue stream for Avivagen. 

OxC-beta™ Livestock is a proprietary product shown to be effective and economic in replacing the antibiotics commonly added to livestock feeds.  OxC-beta™ Livestock is currently registered and available for sale in the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and more recently New Zealand. Avivagen intends to accelerate market access and the commercial uptake of its OxC-beta™ Livestock product, a product that has the potential to eliminate the use of antibiotics as growth promoters in livestock feed, which is a problem that needs an urgent solution and which represents a multi-billion dollar market opportunity.

UNAHCO is the exclusive distributor for Avivagen’s OxC-beta™ Livestock in the Philippines, where it is now registered for use in all food animal species. The Philippines is an important feed market, with annual production of feed estimated at 13 million metric tons per year. The most important commercial livestock species in the Philippines are swine, with production of approximately 2.1 million metric tons per year, and broiler poultry, with production of approximately 1.7 million metric tons per year. Compared to Canada, the Philippines produces about the same amount of pork and 1.5 times as much broiler chicken.

UNAHCO is the wholly-owned feed and veterinary subsidiary of Unilab Inc., the biggest pharmaceutical company in the Philippines. UNAHCO provides a broad range of animal healthcare and nutrition products and programs to meet the requirements of both commercial and individual farmers in the Philippines as well as abroad. It is a leading producer of pig and poultry feed and has a distribution network that serves more than 3,000 outlets, supported by more than 100 field personnel.

About Avivagen
Avivagen is a public corporation traded on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol VIV and is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, based in partnership facilities of the National Research Council of Canada and Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. For more information, visit www.avivagen.com. The contents of the website are expressly not incorporated by reference in this press release.

About OxC-beta™ Technology and OxC-beta™ Livestock
Avivagen’s OxC-beta™ technology is derived from Avivagen discoveries about carotenoids, compounds that give certain fruits and vegetables their bright colours, and is a non-antibiotic means of maintaining optimal health and growth. OxC-beta™ Livestock is a proprietary product shown to be effective and economic in replacing the antibiotics commonly added to livestock feeds. OxC-beta™ Livestock is currently registered and available for sale in the Philippines, Taiwan and Thailand.

Avivagen’s OxC-beta™ Livestock product is safe, effective and could fulfill the global mandate to remove all in-feed antibiotics as growth promoters. Numerous international livestock trials with poultry and swine using OxC-beta™ Livestock have proven that the product performs as well as, and, sometimes, in some aspects, better than in-feed antibiotics.

Forward Looking Statements
This news release includes certain forward-looking statements that are based upon the current expectations of management. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties associated with the business of Avivagen Inc. and the environment in which the business operates. Any statements contained herein that are not statements of historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking, including those identified by the expressions “aim”, “anticipate”, “appear”, “believe”, “consider”, “could”, “estimate”, “expect”, “if”, “intend”, “goal”, “hope”, “likely”, “may”, “plan”, “possibly”, “potentially”, “pursue”, “seem”, “should”, “whether”, “will”, “would” and similar expressions. Statements set out in this news release relating to the expectation that UNAHCO will continue to order product at the current rate or increase orders, the possibility for deployment or launch of OxC-beta™ Livestock in new jurisdictions around the world or for it to replace antibiotics in livestock feeds as well as fill a critical need for health support in certain livestock applications where antibiotics are precluded, Avivagen’s intention to accelerate market access and the commercial uptake of its OxC-beta™ Livestock product and the size of market opportunities are all forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations. For instance, UNAHCO is under no obligation to continue purchasing product from Avivagen or to increase its purchases and it could cease or reduce its purchases at any time, Avivagen’s products may not gain market acceptance or regulatory approval in new jurisdictions or for new applications and may not be widely accepted as a replacement for antibiotics in livestock feeds, new market access may not occur in the timeline or manner expected by Avivagen and the market opportunities may not be as large as Avivagen anticipates due to many factors, many of which are outside of Avivagen’s control.   Except as required by law, Avivagen assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

For more information:
Avivagen Inc.
Drew Basek
Director of Investor Relations
100 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0R6
Phone: 416-540-0733
E-mail: [email protected]

Kym Anthony
Chairman & Interim CEO
100 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0R6
Head Office Phone: 613-949-8164
Website: www.avivagen.com

Copyright © 2018 Avivagen Inc. OxC-beta™ is a trademark of Avivagen Inc.