• 15,000 sq. ft. facility in TMC Innovation Factory Labs will house Systemic Bio’s R&D, production of patent-pending h-VIOS^™ organ-on-a-chip platform
• Cleanroom manufacturing intended to support sterile production of thousands of h-VIOS chips, plates — an unprecedented capacity to support multiple contracts with pharmaceutical companies over next 12 months
• Jeremy Carter, seasoned biopharmaceutical production leader, joins as Vice President, Operations to oversee scaffold manufacturing
  

HOUSTON, April 05, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Systemic Bio™, a 3D Systems (NYSE:DDD) company, announced the opening of its new headquarters for hydrogel scaffold manufacturing and organ-on-a-chip R&D to facilitate its mission to accelerate drug discovery and development. This state-of-the-art facility contains a cleanroom for bioprinted hydrogel production and is located in the TMC Innovation Factory Labs on the Texas Medical Center Campus in Houston. From this location, Systemic Bio’s engineers and scientists will continue the development and production of the company’s proprietary h-VIOS™ (human vascularized integrated organ systems) organ-on-a-chip platform.

h-VIOS is a versatile organ-on-a-chip platform that can recapitulate several organ and disease functions. Composed of vascularized hydrogel scaffolds, the h-VIOS platform enables the survival and function of human cells, both healthy and diseased, as well as the delivery of drugs to these cells in a more physiological manner. The establishment and further validation of these systems has the potential to significantly reduce both the high costs and extended times required for pharmaceutical companies to bring new drugs to market. The new center of excellence for scaffold manufacturing will enable sterile and quality-controlled production of h-VIOS chips and plates to be used by Systemic Bio’s pharmaceutical partners in drug testing. To oversee manufacturing operations, Systemic Bio hired Jeremy Carter as its Vice President of Operations. Jeremy has more than ten years of experience with GMP and FDA-regulated biopharmaceutical production at leading biotech companies such as Grail and Thermo Fisher Scientific.

“The opening of this facility is a fantastic milestone in Systemic Bio’s journey to accelerate drug discovery and development and a leap forward for the field of bioprinting,” said Taci Pereira, CEO, Systemic Bio. “With cutting-edge Print-to-Perfusion™ bioprinting technology from 3D Systems, our new cleanroom, and an exceptional team of scientists and engineers, we can now manufacture patterned sterile hydrogel scaffolds for commercial use with unprecedented precision, quality, and scalability. This marks a pivotal shift for bioprinting – going from experimental research to full-scale production. The h-VIOS platform is just the beginning of what we can unlock in the biotech industry with this new capability, and we look forward to continuing to partner with pharmaceutical and biotech companies to pursue these new opportunities.”

Systemic Bio is working to establish multi-year partnerships with pharmaceutical companies that could lead to the discovery of promising new drugs using the h-VIOS platform. Beyond providing organ-on-a-chip test samples and services, Systemic Bio is also now partnering with biotechnology companies interested in leveraging its hydrogel manufacturing capability to produce scaffolds for their applications of interest. The company is also currently recruiting for several open positions. For more information, please visit the company’s website.

Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements made in this release that are not statements of historical or current facts are forward-looking statements . Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Systemic Bio or 3D Systems, as applicable, to be materially different from historical results or from any future results or projections expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In many cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terms such as "believes," "belief," "expects," "may," "will," "estimates," "intends," "anticipates" or "plans" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are based upon management’s beliefs, assumptions, and current expectations and may include comments as to the beliefs and expectations of Systemic Bio or 3D Systems as to future events and trends affecting its business and are necessarily subject to uncertainties, many of which are outside the control of the applicable company. The factors described under the headings "Forward-Looking Statements" and "Risk Factors" in 3D Systems’ periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission by 3D Systems, as well as other factors, could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected or predicted in forward-looking statements. Although management believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, forward-looking statements are not, and should not be relied upon as a guarantee of future performance or results, nor will they necessarily prove to be accurate indications of the times at which such performance or results will be achieved. The forward-looking statements included are made only as of the date of the statement. Neither Systemic Bio or 3D Systems undertakes any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements made by management or on its behalf, whether as a result of future developments, subsequent events or circumstances or otherwise, except as required by law.

About Systemic Bio
Systemic Bio is a biotech company focused on the application of advanced bioprinting technologies to pharmaceutical drug discovery and development. Founded in 2022 as a wholly-owned company of 3D Systems, Systemic Bio leverages 3D Systems’ breakthrough, production-level bioprinting technology to create extremely precise vascularized organ and disease models using biomaterials and human cells. These proprietary organs-on-chips can be manufactured reproducibly in large quantities and then perfused with drugs to study the effects on healthy or diseased tissue at the earliest stages of pharmaceutical drug development. More information on the company is available at www.systemic.bio.

Investor Contact: investor.relations@3dsystems.com
Media Contact:  press@systemic.bio

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7282ea3f-2258-4ea6-b521-488dbafa0a44