BioAmber Wins ICIS Innovation Award for Best Business Innovation

MINNEAPOLIS, MN, Oct. 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ - BioAmber, Inc. has been awarded a 2011 ICIS Innovation Award, winning the Best Business Innovation category for the development and commercialization of its biobased succinic acid platform.  BioAmber joins an elite group of past winners that includes Huntsman in 2010 and DSM in 2009.

BioAmber becomes only the second company to have won the prestigious ICIS Innovation and the EPA Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge awards in the same year.  Dow was the first company to accomplish the feat in 2008, when Dow Chemical won an ICIS Innovation Award and Dow AgroSciences won an EPA Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award.

The ICIS Innovation Award for Best Business Innovation, voted by a panel of judges from DSM, Dow Corning, NNFCC, CRA International and New Scientist, highlights innovation in the way chemical companies do business. The panel recognized BioAmber's use of open innovation and industrial biotechnology to bring to market a sustainable, cost effective technology that produces a range of C4 chemicals including succinic acid and 1,4-butanediol.

"We thank the ICIS Innovation judges for recognizing BioAmber's use of open innovation, which has helped us to accelerate the development and commercialization of a robust platform chemical.  Our success demonstrates that open innovation is not just for large companies and that renewable chemistry has matured to the point of being a real option for the chemical industry," said Jean-Francois Huc, CEO of BioAmber.

Through its use of open innovation and extensive partnerships, BioAmber is the first company to commercialize biobased succinic acid, using a cost effective and environmentally responsible process that represents a viable alternative to petrochemicals.   BioAmber currently produces biobased succinic acid in France and has announced two additional plants that will produce biosuccinic acid and 1,4 butanediol: Sarnia, Ontario, which will be commissioned in 2013 and Thailand, which will be commissioned in 2014.

Also announced today, BioAmber was named to the 2011 Global Cleantech 100, an annual list of the most promising global cleantech companies.  Cleantech 100 nominees must be independent, for-profit companies that are not listed on any major stock exchange.  Companies are scored on their innovation, market size and growth and their ability to execute their technology.

About BioAmber, Inc.
BioAmber, a renewable chemistry company, is the market leader in the development and commercialization of biobased succinic acid and derivatives including 1,4 butanediol and modified PBS, a biodegradable plastic offering better heat resistance and processability than other biopolymers.  BioAmber operates the world's only dedicated biobased succinic acid plant and has partnerships with market leaders including Cargill, DuPont Applied Biosciences, Mitsubishi Chemical, Mitsui & Co. and PTTMCC Biochem.  BioAmber is also leveraging its succinic acid experience and know-how to develop a biobased adipic acid platform. The company has offices and research labs in Minneapolis, MN, an office in Montreal, a sales office in Shanghai, China and a production plant in Pomacle, France.  For more information, see www.bio-amber.com.

SOURCE BIOAMBER INC.