Meredian Inc. Announces Acquisition of PHA Technology from Procter & Gamble

CINCINNATI and BAINBRIDGE, Ga., Oct. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Meredian, Inc. a privately held Georgia corporation, announced today the acquisition of an extensive intellectual property portfolio from The Procter & Gamble Company relating to Polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) technology. Procter & Gamble developed the technology through more than a decade of research, resulting in a highly functional and cost effective material, which will now be produced commercially by Meredian, Inc.

Meredian will use the technology to manufacture new biopolymers using renewable resources, further reducing the global dependence on petroleum products in the production of plastics.

"We are very pleased and excited to bring leading-edge, green technology to the marketplace," said S. Blake Lindsey, President of Meredian, Inc. "Meredian biopolymers combined with our existing DaniMer and Seluma biopolymers will enable us to provide synergies within these technology platforms and will result in one of the world's most versatile biopolymer product lines."

Harry Coleman, director of P&G's External Business Development adds, "As part of our open innovation strategy, P&G was seeking an enthusiastic company that could efficiently commercialize our intellectual property on polymers. We selected Meredian because of their dedication to biopolymers and strong ability to take our development work to the next level -- delivering products to the market. We look forward to future collaboration with Meredian in this area."

Meredian expects to begin construction in 2008 on the first of four planned production facilities; the first will be located in the Southeastern United States. Meredian plans to produce over 600 million pounds of biopolymers annually.

According to Mr. Lindsey, Meredian polymers work well in many traditional plastic applications by retaining product quality and convenience while reducing the burden on landfills. Meredian polymers will biodegrade either aerobically or anaerobically. This means the material will be quickly reabsorbed into the natural environment with no adverse ecological or health affects. Degradation occurs in septic systems, commercial waste water treatment systems, composting environments or even cold ocean waters. In these environments, naturally occurring bacteria use Meredian polymers as a food source and accelerate degradation.

"Given the unique physical property range of Meredian polymers we can expect to see a wide array of applications, from highly flexible films and fibers to rigid packaging, including many single-use food service and liquid packaging applications," added Mr. Lindsey.

About Meredian

Meredian Inc. was formed this year following the successful start of the DaniMer Scientific business in 2004 by Dr. Daniel Carraway. Dr. Carraway received his PhD from the University of Georgia and spent more than a decade in industry developing and commercializing new technologies. Mr. Lindsey joined DaniMer in late 2004 following a distinguished career in the forest products industry. These key leaders have enabled the successful introduction of a modified PLA-based product line and more recently the development and launch of Seluma Technologies, which offers a proprietary line of polycondensation-based biopolymers. With the addition of Meredian PHA biopolymers, the company can offer a comprehensive selection of biopolymers; supporting their core values of utilizing sustainably produced, renewable resource based polymers to improve people's lives and work.

About Procter & Gamble

Three billion times a day, P&G brands touch the lives of people around the world. The company has one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Pampers(R), Tide(R), Ariel(R), Always(R), Whisper(R), Pantene(R), Mach3(R), Bounty(R), Dawn(R), Gain(R), Pringles(R), Folgers(R), Charmin(R), Downy(R), Lenor(R), Iams(R), Crest(R), Oral-B(R), Actonel(R), Duracell(R), Olay(R), Head & Shoulders(R), Wella(R), Gillette(R), and Braun(R). The P&G community consists of 138,000 employees working in over 80 countries worldwide. Please visit http://www.pg.com for the latest news and in-depth information about P&G and its brands.