Willow Biosciences Inc. announced that it has successfully completed research and development on its program to produceursodeoxycholic acid ("UDCA"), a large volume active pharmaceutical ingredient ("API") used in nutraceutical and pharmaceutical products. UDCA has applications as a medication for management and treatment of cholestatic liver disease and gallstone conditions, and as an intermediate for production of tauroursodeoxycholic acid (TUDCA), a key API in a combination therapy recently approved in Canada and the United States for treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Through this partnered program with Sandhill One, LLC ("Sandhill"), Willow has now optimized a proprietary enzyme vital to the development of UDCA while solving for selective C-H hydroxylation at industrial scale - often referred to as one of the "Holy Grails" of chemistry.

This breakthrough was made possible by Willow's BioOxi technology, and believe marks the first example of commercially relevant productivities with this class of enzyme. This successful outcome further illustrates that the BioOxi platform is broadly applicable to the manufacturing of intermediates and APIs, particularly steroid APIs. With R&D now complete, Willow anticipates receiving milestone payments and revenue upon commercialization by Sandhill.