BioGaia's previous investments in MetaboGen
In December 2014 BioGaia reported its decision to invest SEK 12 million in MetaboGen. The investment was made over a two-year period and included conditions for agreed milestones. The first investment of SEK four million was carried out in December 2014, the second in December 2015 and the third investment in December 2016. BioGaia thereafter owned 36 percent of the share capital of MetaboGen. In April 2018 a further SEK 11.7 million were invested in the company and BioGaia became the majority shareholder in MetaboGen with 62 percent of the shares. In July 2018 BioGaia increased its investment in MetaboGen to 92 percent."I'm very pleased that MetaboGen has been able to reach all the predetermined milestones and that we've been able to complete our acquisition of the company. With our full ownership of MetaboGen we'll be able to accelerate the development of new probiotic strains, in particular the strict anaerobic bacteria which are part of our pipeline. I am convinced that new scientific discoveries from the MetaboGen team will benefit us and most importantly our partners and consumers, as well as contribute to our long-term growth," says Isabelle Ducellier, CEO of BioGaia.

About MetaboGen
MetaboGen was founded in 2011 by Professor Fredrik Bäckhed at the University of Gothenburg and Professor Jens B Nielsen at Chalmers University of Technology, together with GU Ventures, which commercializes research findings and develops companies related to the University of Gothenburg.

In addition to assignments for BioGaia, MetaboGen has a collaboration with the pharmaceutical company Ferring and holds a number of patents and patent applications in the microbiome field. The company has a laboratory in Gothenburg where development of new probiotic strains takes place. Read more on metabogen.se (http://www.metabogen.se/).