ProMetic Life Sciences Inc. Reports its Second Quarter 2009 Highlights and Financial Results

MONTREAL, QUEBEC--(Marketwire - August 05, 2009) - ProMetic Life Sciences Inc. (TSX: PLI) ("ProMetic") today reports business highlights and financial results for the second quarter of 2009. All amounts are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise indicated.

"ProMetic continues to make solid progress on its 2009 objective to focus primarily on driving revenues and controlling costs. ProMetic is working with its blue-chip customers to deliver short-term revenues and continue to build toward long-term supply arrangements. At the same time, ProMetic continues to tailor the burn to revenue generating activities, improve efficiencies, and reduce research and development expenses. This also includes a head count reduction, in some cases temporarily, in sectors of activity outside the core objectives," stated Mr. Pierre Laurin, President and Chief Executive Officer of ProMetic.

"A fact of great importance to be noted in this quarter is that, even given the difficult economic times and the restricted lending conditions put forth by banking institutions, ProMetic is moving from bridge financing to much more conventional lending facilities," commented Mr. Bruce Pritchard, ProMetic's Chief Financial Officer.

Highlights

Protein Technologies

- 12 client products, for which ProMetic's core technologies are locked into their "Production Drug Master Files", are licenced for sale by the Food and Drug Administration or the European Medicines Agency. Sales volume for these products are steadily increasing;

- Over 20 other products, also relying on ProMetic's technologies, are under development with partners. ProMetic is making substantial progress towards a number of new key contracts to be announced over the next quarters;

- Revenue growth expected from ProMetic's proven prion capture technology used at industrial scale for the manufacturing of safer biopharmaceuticals;

- Progress is being made by the various advisory bodies to the respective governments with regard to the adoption of the P-Capt® filter. Advisors have indicated that further news on the scale and timeframe for adoption of the device in the United Kingdom should be available in the fall of 2009.

Therapeutics

- Focus for the Therapeutics Unit is solely on partnering activities. Negotiations with interested parties have reached an advanced stage for licensing transactions regarding PBI-1402.

Corporate

- The last payment on the $12 M long-term debt contracted in 2006 is scheduled for August 2009, at which point this debt will be fully extinguished. This milestone eliminates $1.5 M per quarter of cash burn;

- Since March 31, 2009, the Company has successfully raised $2.4 M in loan financing from long-standing shareholders and a Director, and through monetization of certain key contracts;

- ProMetic will continue to secure working capital support from key contracts;

- Over recent quarters, ProMetic has eliminated several managerial positions, including those that have been vacated following the departure of incumbents, resulting in an associated reduction estimated at $3 M in annual salary and related expenses;

- Dr. Christopher Bryant left his position of COO of ProMetic BioTherapeutics, Inc. Drs Timothy Hayes and Tom Chen, both Vice-Presidents of this business unit will be reporting directly to Pierre Laurin, President of said unit.

Financials Results

The following information should be read in conjunction with the financial statements for the second quarter ending June 30, 2009, as well as the Management's Discussion and Analysis for the same period.

Revenues, including those deferred to later periods, were at $4 M for the second of quarter of 2009, compared to $1.3 M for the same quarter in 2008.

A decrease of $6 M in cash used in operations was recorded during the second quarter 2009, versus the same period in 2008. For the first six months of 2009, a total decrease of $8.9 M in cash used for operations was recorded, versus the same period in 2008, mainly due to increased sales and the cost cutting measures initiated by ProMetic's Management team. As already stated, expenditures have been reduced in the non-revenue generating segments of the business.

The EBITDA position has improved significantly during in the first half of 2009, being ($4.7 M) versus ($8.8 M) in the same period of 2008.

ProMetic's MD&A and 2009 Second Quarter Financial Statements have been filed on Sedar (www.sedar.com) and are now available on the Company's web site at www.prometic.com.

Conference Call Details

A conference call and webcast will be held on Thursday, August 6, 2009, at 10:30 (EDT). The numbers to access the conference call are (416) 620-2407 (international) and 1 (800) 215-1640 (toll free). A live audio webcast of the conference call will be available through ProMetic's website at http://www.prometic.com/en/news-events/events.php.

A replay of the call will be available by telephone for a period of seven days as of Thursday, August 6, 2009, at 12:30 (EDT). The numbers to access the audio replay are (416) 626-4100 (international) and 1 (800) 558-5253 (toll free) using access code 21433585. The replay of the web cast may be downloaded directly from ProMetic's web site.

About ProMetic Life Sciences Inc.

ProMetic Life Sciences Inc. ("ProMetic") (www.prometic.com) is a biopharmaceutical company specialized in the research, development, manufacture and marketing of a variety of commercial applications derived from its proprietary Mimetic Ligand™ technology. This technology is used in large-scale purification of biologics and the elimination of pathogens. ProMetic is also active in therapeutic drug development with the mission to bring to market effective, innovative, lower cost, less toxic products for the treatment of hematology and cancer. Its drug discovery platform is focused on replacing complex, expensive proteins with synthetic "drug-like" protein mimetics. Headquartered in Montreal (Canada), ProMetic has R&D facilities in the U.K., the U.S. and Canada, manufacturing facilities in the U.K. and business development activities in the U.S., Europe, Asia and in the Middle-East.

Forward Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements about ProMetic's objectives, strategies and businesses that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements are "forward-looking" because they are based on our current expectations about the markets we operate in and on various estimates and assumptions. Actual events or results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements if known or unknown risks affect our business, or if our estimates or assumptions turn out to be inaccurate. Such risks and assumptions include, but are not limited to, ProMetic's ability to develop, manufacture, and successfully commercialize value-added pharmaceutical products, the availability of funds and resources to pursue R&D projects, the successful and timely completion of clinical studies, the ability of ProMetic to take advantage of business opportunities in the pharmaceutical industry, uncertainties related to the regulatory process and general changes in economic conditions. You will find a more detailed assessment of the risks that could cause actual events or results to materially differ from our current expectations on page 25 of ProMetic's Annual Information Form for the year ended December 31, 2008, under the heading "Risk and Uncertainties related to ProMetic's business". As a result, we cannot guarantee that any forward-looking statement will materialize. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statement even if new information becomes available, as a result of future events or for any other reason, unless required by applicable securities laws and regulations. All amounts are in Canadian dollars unless indicated otherwise.