Avantium Spins Out its Pharmaceutical Business

    AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS, April 19, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Today Avantium announced the spin out of its pharmaceutical service & development business. The company has agreed to a management buy-out, to enable the business to become fully independent, under the name Crystallics. The spin-out is part of Avantium's strategic plan to focus on its cleantech and chemicals activities.

Tom van Aken, Chief Executive Officer of Avantium, commented:"The spin-out of our pharmaceutical business is an important step for Avantium to become a focused cleantech company. Avantium will build on its solid foundation of its advanced catalyst development technology, to develop its YXY technology in green chemistry and to provide R&D services and systems to chemical and refinery companies. We have a tremendous opportunity with our YXY technology for the production of green building blocks for materials and fuels. A clear strategic focus is essential for the fast and successful commercialization of this breakthrough technology. We think that the pharmaceutical activities will benefit from becoming an independent and dedicated pharma company. They have a strong technology platform and excellent people and we wish the Crystallics team all the success in building a great new company."

Crystallics will be located in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and will specialize in solid state research and pre-formulation for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. The management of Crystallics will consist of Chief Executive Officer Gunnar Staaf and Chief Scientific Officer Marcel Hoffmann.

Avantium will continue with selling its crystallization systems Crystal16 and Crystalline , as part of its Services & Systems business. Crystal16 and Crystalline are parallel crystallization R&D systems for helping scientists to better understand crystallization reactions.

About Avantium
Avantium is a leading technology company specialized in the area of advanced high-throughput R&D. The company develops and commercializes YXY - its new brand name for chemical building blocks for making green materials and fuels that can compete on price and performance.

Avantium has demonstrated the value and commercial potential of its unique technology and knowledge by collaborating with leading companies in the energy and chemical industries. Avantium has a global customer base for its profitable R&D services and systems offering, including market leaders such as BP, Shell and Sasol. Avantium offices and headquarters are based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

For more information about Avantium, please contact Mariette Hoogendoorn at +31 20 586 8010 or visit the corporate website: www.avantium.com or the product website www.yxy.com.

About Crystallics
Crystallics is a science driven contract research organization specializing in pre-formulation and optimization of the physical forms of drug substances, including salt screening and selection, polymorphs and amorphous state characterization and co-crystal screening.

Crystallics has developed a number of unique and proprietary technologies both in hardware and software, including High Throughput X-ray Powder Diffraction (HT-XRPD) technology and laboratory informatics, data analysis and predictive models. These unique, proprietary technologies, together with a strong customer focus, make Crystallics a supplier of choice in solid state research and pre-formulation. Over the last decade, the vast majority of large and medium sized pharmaceutical companies, as well as, many smaller biotechnology companies have commissioned solid state and pre-formulation work with Crystallics. For more information about Crystallics, please visit www.crystallics.com or contact Gunnar Staaf on +31 20 8202690.

Avantium is a leading technology company specialized in the area of advanced high-throughput R&D. The company develops and commercializes YXY - its new brand name for chemical building blocks for making green materials and fuels that can compete on price and performance.

Avantium has demonstrated the value and commercial potential of its unique technology and knowledge by collaborating with leading companies in the energy and chemical industries. Avantium has a global customer base for its profitable R&D services and systems offering, including market leaders such as BP, Shell and Sasol. Avantium offices and headquarters are based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Website: http://www.avantium.com

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