WILLOW & SUANFARMA ANNOUNCE COMPLETED DEVELOPMENT AND MANUFACTURING PROCESS FOR CBG AND COMMITMENT TO THE PRODUCTION OF NEW MOLECULES IN A NATURAL WAY

CALGARY, AB and MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., March 22, 2023 /PRNewswire/ - WILLOW BIOSCIENCES, (TSX: WLLW) (OTCQB: CANSF) and SUANFARMA today jointly announced that they have, together with SUANFARMA's CIPAN manufacturing site, completed the development and manufacturing process in pilot scale for the WILLOW-owned ingredient, Cannabigerol (CBG). The 36 m³ scaling-up production batches required for the forthcoming qualification and registration will be completed during 2023.

• SUANFARMA' s CIPAN manufacturing site has significant expertise as a CDMO in fermentation and purification technologies under the highest standards of quality.
• WILLOW BIOSCIENCES is a leading biotechnology company focused on revolutionizing industrial manufacturing of pure, consistent and sustainable functional ingredients using its FutureGrown^tm platform.
• WILLOW'S CBG, the company's first functional ingredient for consumer care and health & wellness applications, is clinically tested to be safe and has been shown to act as a potent antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial.

After this successful technology transfer, development, and piloting, SUANFARMA and WILLOW BIOSCIENCES plan to broaden the relationship by offering an end-to-end synthetic biology solution and expanding their joint product portfolio. With this alliance, both companies will bring together their existing pharma and biotech capabilities for the production of ingredients, including anti-infectives and other Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) and intermediates for Pharma and natural ingredients designed for the Health & Wellness and Food & Beverage industries.

"CIPAN has proven itself a highly capable manufacturing partner with the efficient scaling and production of our first ingredient, CBG. We are excited to broaden the collaboration further to both offer an end-to-end solution to our customers while also expanding the portfolio of products with SUANFARMA" says Chris Savile, COO of Willow Biosciences.

"The development and piloting of this USP/DSP process in collaboration with Willow Biosciences is now completed and constitutes a very important milestone towards a robust, reliable, and efficient manufacturing process at industrial scale. This collaboration opens new business opportunities for both companies with important synergies." says Daniel Rivero, Industrial Director of Suanfarma.

Willow develops and produces precision fermented functional ingredients for the health and wellness, food and beverage and personal care markets. Willow's FutureGrown^tm biotechnology platform allows large-scale production with sustainability at its core. Willow's R&D team has a proven track record of developing and commercializing bio-based manufacturing processes and products to benefit our B2B partners and their customers. For more information, visit www.willowbio.com.

SUANFARMA founded in 1993, is a B2B life science partner specialized in the development, production, and commercialization of ingredients for the pharmaceutical, veterinary and nutraceutical industries.

All facilities comply with the highest existing regulations in the pharmaceutical industry. With the support of a consolidated and strong commercial network with 12 local offices placed strategically around the world, SUANFARMA provides its services to more than 3,000 active customers in over 70 countries. More information: www.suanfarma.com

FutureGrowntm is a registered trademark of Willow Biosciences Inc. All other trademarks are trademarks of their respective holders.

This news release may include forward-looking statements including opinions, assumptions, estimates and the assessment of future plans and operations of the companies, and, more particularly, statements concerning: intentions to broaden the relationship between the two companies by offering an end-to-end synthetic biology solution and expanding their joint product portfolio and scaling production batches of CBG; and the business plan of the companies, generally. When used in this news release, the words "will," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "intent," "may," "project," "should," and similar expressions are intended to be among the statements that identify forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements are founded on the basis of expectations and assumptions made by the companies which include, but are not limited to: the success of strategic partnerships; the market for CBG products; the ability to obtain and retain applicable licences; the ability to obtain suitable manufacturing partners and other strategic relationships; and the successful implementation of the companies' commercialization and production strategy, generally. Forward-looking statements are subject to a wide range of risks and uncertainties, and although the companies believe that the expectations represented by such forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will be realized. Any number of important factors could cause actual results biotechnology industry in general; the success of research and development strategies; infringement on intellectual property; failure to benefit from partnerships or successfully integrate acquisitions; actions and initiatives of federal, state and provincial governments and changes to government policies and the execution and impact of these actions, initiatives and policies; import/export and research restrictions for operations; the size of the CBG market; competition from other industry participants; adverse U.S., Canadian and global economic conditions; adverse global events and public-health crises, including the evolving COVID-19 outbreak; failure to comply with certain regulations; departure of key management personnel or inability to attract and retain talent; and other factors more fully described from time to time in the reports and filings made by Willow with securities regulatory authorities. Please refer to Willow's most recent annual information form and management's discussion and analysis for additional risk factors relating to Willow, which can be accessed either on Willow's website at www.willowbio.com or under Willow's profile on www.sedar.com.

The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and the companies do not undertake any obligation to update publicly or to revise any of the included forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable law. The forward-looking statements contained herein are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

SOURCE Willow Biosciences Inc.