Personal care agreement with Nouryon

28 February 2019

Itaconix plc ("Itaconix" or "the Company")

Itaconix signs personal care agreement with Nouryon

Itaconix has signed an exclusive global supply agreement with Nouryon (formerly AkzoNobel Specialty Chemicals) for Itaconix's innovative bio-based polymers used in hair care, skin care, body wash, sun care, and cosmetics.

It is the second supply agreement resulting from a joint development agreement signed by the companies in 2017 to explore opportunities for polymers made from itaconic acid using Itaconix's technology. Earlier this year, the companies announced a supply agreement for Itaconix's polymers with chelating properties that Nouryon will market to customers in the detergents market.

Under the terms of the new supply agreement, Itaconix will produce and supply certain proprietary polymers that Nouryon will market to its customers in personal care applications. The agreement does not include Itaconix's polymers for odour control.

"More environmentally conscious consumers are driving demand for eco-friendlier and bio-based personal care products," said Lynnette Bowen, Global Marketing Director Personal Care at Nouryon. "By adding Itaconix's proprietary polymers to our portfolio, we're enabling our customers to create greener formulations without compromising on technical performance, helping them to meet fast-changing market trends and consumer demands."

Nouryon currently offers a wide range of products to support the personal care and hair styling industries, including aesthetic modifiers, conditioning agents, rheology modifiers, film formers, cleansing agents, emulsifiers and active ingredients that provide easy-to-use solutions for formulating innovative and sustainable hair and skin care products.

AB Ghosh, Managing Director, Surface Chemistry at Nouryon, commented: "We are pleased to conclude this agreement, which clearly shows the potential that Itaconix's technology has across our portfolio. Partnering allows us to bring even more innovation to customers, and we're excited to introduce the functionality and versatility of these bio-based polymers to the market."

Peter Nieuwenhuizen, Chief Technology Officer at Nouryon, added: "Our two supply agreements demonstrate the success and value of our joint efforts with Itaconix to deliver new and better solutions to our customers. We see that Itaconix polymers can complement our product range through their unique hybrid properties, straddling dispersion, film formation, chelation, scale inhibition, and rheology modification."

John R. Shaw, CEO of Itaconix, stated: "This agreement is another major step towards increasing our revenue growth by accessing more customer opportunities through worldwide leaders in key application areas. As we commercialize our deep pipeline of proprietary itaconate chemistries, we are moving faster to identify new uses for our polymers, generate initial demand and prove customer value through our direct selling efforts, and then gain commitments from market leaders to create worldwide revenue potential."

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 (MAR).

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About Itaconix

Itaconix develops and produces bio-based specialty polymers that improve the safety, performance or sustainability of consumer and industrial products, with technology and market leadership positions in non-phosphate detergents, odour control, and hair styling.

www.itaconix.com