HAWAII BIOTECH OPENS NEW STATE-OF-THE-ART R&D LABORATORIES AND HEADQUARTERS - 21 Feb 2017

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HAWAII BIOTECH OPENS NEW STATE-OF-THE-ART R&D LABORATORIES AND HEADQUARTERS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Dr. Elliot Parks, 808-792-1399 eparks@hibiotech.com

(Honolulu, Feb. 21, 2017) -- Hawaii Biotech, Inc., in the forefront of creating vaccines for established and emerging infectious diseases such as Zika and anti-toxin drugs for weaponized biological threats, has finished construction of a state-of-the-art research and development laboratory and administrative offices at Dole Cannery. The company was formerly located in the Hawaii Research Center building in Aiea for 33 years.

The new 11,000 square-foot facility includes medicinal chemistry and molecular biology laboratories. The company has 21 employees, including eight with PhDs and six with Masters degrees.

"The Dole Cannery location has several advantages such as improved workflow, a more central location, and closer proximity to the John A. Burns School of Medicine and University of Hawaii at Manoa. Importantly, we now also have an emergency power support for refrigerators, freezers, and delicate equipment during power outages," said Dr. Elliot Parks, chief executive officer of Hawaii Biotech.

In 2016 Hawaii Biotech employed the company's vaccine development platform to develop a Zika virus vaccine to protect against both infection with this virus and the severe consequences of the infection, including microcephaly in infants born to infected mothers and Guillain Barre Syndrome in adults. The Company is currently engaged in demonstrating the effectiveness of this new vaccine.

In 2014, Hawaii Biotech expanded its portfolio to include drug discovery, in particular therapeutic drugs against diseases that have been weaponized, such as anthrax and botulinum. The company is working with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, part of the Department of Defense, and The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), on these new drugs to protect against terrorist threats.

Hawaii Biotech successfully completed first-in-human Phase 1 clinic studies in healthy human subjects for West Nile virus in Honolulu and dengue fever on the mainland. In 2011, Hawaii Biotech sold its dengue virus vaccine to Merck, one of the giant pharmaceutical companies, and that vaccine is now in Phase 2 clinical trials.

About Hawaii Biotech, Inc. Hawaii Biotech is a privately held biotechnology company focused on the development of prophylactic vaccines for established and emerging infectious diseases and anti-toxin drugs for biological threats. Hawaii Biotech has developed proprietary expertise in the production of recombinant proteins that have application to the manufacture of safe and effective vaccines, diagnostic kits and as research tools. Hawaii Biotech completed

successful first-in-human Phase 1 clinical studies with both West Nile virus and dengue virus vaccines in healthy subjects. Hawaii Biotech is continuing the development of small molecule anti-toxin drugs for anthrax and botulism. Hawaii Biotech is also currently engaged in developing a pipeline of recombinant subunit vaccines, including vaccine candidates for Zika virus, West Nile virus, Chikungunya virus, tick-borne flavivirus, malaria, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, and Ebola. Founded in Hawaii in 1982, Hawaii Biotech is headquartered in Honolulu. For more information, please visit: www.hibiotech.com