Chicago, IL (July 7, 2015) – zuChem, Inc., an innovative supplier of glycochemicals and specialized sugars for the food ingredients, fine chemicals and related industries, today announced the release of its new 2015 zuCarb Research Products Catalog. The catalog offers an expanded array of rare sugars, including activated sugars, for use in pharmaceutical, nutritional and other life science research and development applications. In related news, zuChem also announced the addition of Bob Gonzalez to its management team. Mr. Gonzalez will be responsible for commercial development of the Company’s zuCarb products line, reporting to CEO David Demirjian.

“I am pleased to welcome Bob Gonzalez to the zuChem team. In his new capacity, Bob will be responsible for expanding sales, marketing and customer support of our zuCarb product line. These rare sugar products provide researchers with new biochemical tools to accelerate their research and expand new approaches to improving disease management and health,” commented Dr. Demirjian.

Mr. Gonzalez brings more than fifteen years of broad business development experience in the health and nutrition industry to his role at zuChem. Most recently he co-founded start-up Hearts & Minds LLC, a specialty food company offering health conscious consumers the foods they love to eat made better for them. He was also co-founder and CEO of NewNeural LLC, a biotechnology company that developed technologies licensed from University of Illinois to treat diseases and injuries of the central nervous system. He has previously held commercial development positions at Ingredion (formerly Corn Products) and Monsanto. Mr. Gonzalez holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University, and earned a Master of Business Administration in Finance from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

About zuChem, Inc.

zuChem, Inc., headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, develops and commercializes innovative green manufacturing processes to produce unique carbohydrates and glycochemicals (varieties of specialized sugars) important for human health and nutrition. The Company’s proprietary technology platform allows it to inexpensively produce a diverse array of specialty sweeteners, pharmaceutical intermediates, nutritional prebiotics and other bio-products at industrial scale using renewable chemicals as raw materials. A copy of the 2015 zuCarb Research Products Catalog may be obtained by emailing zucarb@zuchem.com. For more information on zuChem please contact info@zuchem.com or visit www.zuchem.com.

Chicago, IL (May 27, 2015) – zuChem, Inc., an innovative supplier of glycochemicals and specialized sugars for the food ingredients, fine chemicals and related industries, today announced the appointment of Jeffrey A. Whitnell as Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

In his role at zuChem Mr. Whitnell will oversee the company’s finance operations and be part of the zuChem executive team, reporting to CEO David Demirjian, Ph.D.

Commenting, David Demirjian said, “I am pleased to welcome Jeff Whitnell as CFO. In his prior positions in the life sciences industry, Jeff has proven himself a key member of leadership teams. His extensive, on-point experience will provide critical strategic oversight as we expand our commercial operations.”

Mr. Whitnell brings more than fifteen years of broad financial experience and leadership in the life sciences industry to his role at zuChem.  He was most recently CFO at ReliefBand Medical Technologies, a Chicago-based medical device company. Prior to ReliefBand, he served as CFO for Akorn, Inc., Vice President of Finance and Treasurer for Ovation Pharmaceuticals, and Vice President of Finance and Treasurer for MediChem Life Sciences.  He currently serves as a Director for Elite Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a publicly traded specialty pharmaceuticals company.  Mr. Whitnell holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is a Certified Public Accountant, and earned a Master of Business Administration in Finance from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Chicago, IL (April 29, 2015) – zuChem, Inc., an innovative supplier of glycochemicals and specialized sugars for the food ingredients, fine chemicals and related industries, today announced that it has been awarded a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant totaling over $1.2MM by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The grant, entitled “High yield production of GDP-fucose for fucosylation of molecules,” will support expansion of zuChem’s ongoing programs to develop new cost-effective, scaleable methods to manufacture carbohydrate-based products of interest to the life sciences industry.

“Fucosylation is the process of adding fucose sugar units to a molecule. It is one of the most common sugar modifications found in nature and plays a key role in biological recognition events, including tissue development, cell adhesion, inflammation and tumor metastasis,” explained David Demirjian, Ph.D., President and CEO, zuChem. “Our system to produce l-fucose and custom fucosylated molecules opens up the ability to more easily synthesize a new generation of prebiotics and other nutritional products, as well as a variety of drug candidates for the treatment and prevention of many diseases.”

zuChem has an active program to develop a robust process technology platform for the cost-effective manufacture of a wide variety of fucosylated molecules. Recently zuChem was awarded a Phase II SBIR grant by the NIH to support development of methods to manufacture fucosylated human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), including 2’-fucosyllactose and 3′-fucosyllactose. HMOs are believed to play important roles in infant cognitive and immune development. This additional Phase II SBIR grant on the production of GDP-fucose will support zuChem’s expansion of its process technology platform in to additional areas of pharmaceutical interest.

About zuChem, Inc.

zuChem, Inc., headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, develops and commercializes innovative green, renewable manufacturing processes to produce unique carbohydrates and glycochemicals (varieties of specialized sugars) for human health and nutrition. The Company’s proprietary technology platform allows it to produce a variety of specialty sweeteners, pharmaceutical intermediates, nutritional prebiotics and other industrial bio-products using enzymatic, fermentation and synthetic biology technologies. Please visit www.zuchem.com or contact info@zuchem.com for more information.

Novel Technologies Used to More Cost-effectively Produce Key Rare Sugar Intermediates

Chicago, IL (December 2, 2014) – zuChem Inc., an innovative supplier of glycochemicals and specialized sugars for the food ingredients, fine chemicals and related industries, today announced that it has been awarded two Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants totaling over $1.25MM by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the development of new technologies to make activated sugars – key building blocks that enable the discovery of new anti-infective and anticancer drugs, as well as the production of important complex glycans such as human milk oligosaccharides.

The Company was awarded a Phase II SBIR on the production of activated TDP-deoxysugars. The award (of approximately $1.1MM) will be used to support zuChem’s continued development of a novel, proprietary system to produce at commercial scale pharmaceutically-relevant activated TDP-deoxysugars that cannot otherwise be made or are currently prohibitively expensive to produce. Activated TDP-sugars are key reagents necessary for the linking of sugars to other molecules and enable the generation of diverse arrays of novel sugar-based chemicals for many applications, including drug discovery and development.

The Company was also awarded a Phase I SBIR from the NIH on the production of activated hexosamines used by zuChem for the production of important oligosaccharides, including human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs). HMOs are key components of human breast milk, but have been difficult to source for study to better understand their role in infant immune and cognitive development.

“We are very pleased that the NIH has recognized the innovative nature of our technology and the significant chemistry bottleneck that the availability of these novel reagents will relieve”, stated David Demirjian, Ph.D., President and CEO, zuChem. “We are finding that our ability to creatively accelerate the development of novel rare sugar reagents is critical to enabling pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to move forward with the discovery and development of new therapeutic agents and nutritionals.”

zuChem, Inc., headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, focuses on commercializing innovative manufacturing processes for unique glycochemicals (varieties of specialized sugars) for the pharmaceutical and specialty chemicals industries. Glycochemicals are key components of many antibiotics, anticancer and antiviral drugs as well as many specialty food ingredients. Please visit www.zuChem.com or contact info@zuChem.com for more information.

Chicago, IL (January 21, 2014) – zuChem, Inc., an innovative supplier of carbohydrates, specialized sugars, and process technology for the food, nutritional, and pharmaceutical related industries, today announced that it has entered into a global licensing agreement with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for rights to a novel method for the production of 2′-fucosyllactose (2’-FL). 2’-FL is the most abundant human milk oligosaccharide (HMO) in breast milk and thought to have a variety of health benefits, including protection from enteric pathogens and assisting in cognitive development.

“zuChem is the right partner for the commercialization of this technology,” said Lesley Millar-Nicholson, director of the University’s Office of Technology Management. “The Company has developed scalable processes to manufacture new nutritional and health carbohydrates and is well positioned to expand upon work developed here on the Urbana campus and implement it at the commercial scale and cost necessary to bring 2’-FL to market.”

“We are excited to be adding the 2’-FL production technology developed by Drs. Jin, Miller, and their coworkers to our oligosaccharide production platform,” said David Demirjian, CEO of zuChem. “This technology is an excellent fit for our Company and allows us to expand our product offerings in this important area. Fucosylated oligosaccharides such as 2’-FL have been traditionally difficult to make and in the short term we expect this new product to assist researchers in investigating the biological role of 2’-FL.”

zuChem has been developing a robust process technology platform for the cost-effective manufacture of a wide variety of oligosaccharides, including HMOs such as 2’-FL and others. Recently the Company was awarded a Phase I Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Grant by the National Institutes of Health to support development of fucosylated oligosaccharides and their precursors, including 2’-FL (Dr. Leila Aminova, Principal Investigator). The University’s 2’-FL technology directly complements Dr. Aminova’s work.

zuChem is currently in the process of optimizing and scaling its oligosaccharide production technology. The technology will made available for large-scale use through strategic partnerships with interested parties. In addition, the 2’-FL product will also be made available in research quantities as part of the Company’s expansion of its zuCarb™ Reagents products catalog. This catalog is focused on meeting the increasing demand for rare and modified sugars, and the reagents necessary for their use by researchers. New products launched in 2013 include rare sugars such as l-galactose, as well as sugar phosphates including β- l-glucose-1-phosphate, α-d-galactose-1-phosphate and β-l-xylose-1-phosphate. Additional new products available include a variety of activated sugars, available on a custom order basis. For additional information on the availability of 2’-FL and other products, please contact zuChem at (312) 997-2150 or info@zuchem.com.

 

About the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a world-class research institution boasting a respected faculty, high national rankings, and state-of-the-art facilities. The University’s accomplishments include 22 Nobel Laureates among its faculty and alumni and such revolutionary innovations as the Web browser, new plant varieties, and even the discovery of a third form of life.

 

About zuChem, Inc.

zuChem develops and commercializes innovative green, renewable manufacturing processes to produce unique carbohydrates and glycochemicals for human health and nutrition. The Company’s proprietary technology platform allows it to produce a variety of specialty sweeteners, pharmaceutical intermediates, nutritional prebiotics and other industrial bio-products using enzymatic, fermentation and synthetic biology technologies. zuChem is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois with research operations in Peoria, Illinois. For more information on zuChem’s proprietary rare sugar manufacturing processes and the availability of its food ingredient, specialty chemical and pharmaceutical intermediate products, please visit www.zuchem.com or call Rajni Aneja at (312) 997-2150.