VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 17, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- EnWave Corporation (TSX-V:ENW | FSE:E4U) (“EnWave”, or the "Company") announced today that it will discontinue its exploratory equipment development project with Sutro Biopharma Inc. (“Sutro”). EnWave has been working under an equipment construction contract to deploy the Company’s Radiant Energy Vacuum (“REV™”) technology to dehydrate a specific cell-free extract since September 2012.  

EnWave was unable to satisfy certain quantitative bioactivity criteria for the dried cell-free extract; however, the throughput and process time metrics were achieved using REV™ technology.  Due to project time metrics and additional investment required to pursue a solution, both companies decided to put any further development on hold for the foreseeable future. Sutro will independently continue development work to identify a suitable drying process for its cell-free extract.

As a result of this project ending, EnWave will record an impairment to its ‘Due from Customers on Contract’ balance in the amount of $865,000. The impairment charge will be reported in the Company’s third quarter financial statements for the three and nine months ended June 30, 2018.

About EnWave EnWave Corporation, a Vancouver-based advanced technology company, has developed Radiant Energy Vacuum (“REV™”) – an innovative, proprietary method for the precise dehydration of organic materials.

REV™ technology’s commercial viability has been demonstrated and is growing rapidly across several market verticals in the food, and pharmaceutical sectors including legal cannabis. EnWave’s strategy is to sign royalty-bearing commercial licenses with industry leaders in multiple verticals for the use of REV™ technology. The company has signed over twenty royalty-bearing licenses to date, opening up nine distinct market sectors for commercialization of new and innovative products. In addition to these licenses, EnWave has formed a Limited Liability Corporation, NutraDried Food Company, LLC, to develop, manufacture, market and sell all-natural cheese snack products in the United States under the Moon Cheese ® brand. 

EnWave has introduced REV™ as the new dehydration standard in the food and biological material sectors: faster and cheaper than freeze drying, with better end product quality than air drying or spray drying. EnWave currently has three commercial REV™ platforms:

  1. nutra REV ® which is used in the food industry to dry food products quickly and at low-cost, while maintaining high levels of nutrition, taste, texture and colour;
  2. powder REV ® which is used for the bulk dehydration of food cultures, probiotics and fine biochemicals such as enzymes below the freezing point, and
  3.   quanta REV ® which is used for continuous, high-volume low-temperature drying.

An additional platform, freeze REV ® , is being developed as a new method to stabilize and dehydrate biopharmaceuticals such as vaccines and antibodies. More information about EnWave is available at www.enwave.net .

EnWave Corporation Dr. Tim Durance President & CEO

For further information:

John P.A. Budreski, Executive Chairman at +1 (416) 930-0914 E-mail: jbudreski@enwave.net  

Brent Charleton, CFA , Senior Vice President, Sales and Business Development at +1 (778) 378-9616 E-mail: bcharleton@enwave.net

Deborah Honig, Corporate Development, Adelaide Capital Markets at + 1 (647) 203-8793 E-mail: dhonig@enwave.net

Safe Harbour for Forward-Looking Information Statements: This press release may contain forward-looking information based on management's expectations, estimates and projections. All statements that address expectations or projections about the future, including statements about the Company's strategy for growth, product development, market position, expected expenditures, and the expected synergies following the closing are forward-looking statements. All third party claims referred to in this release are not guaranteed to be accurate. All third party references to market information in this release are not guaranteed to be accurate as the Company did not conduct the original primary research. These statements are not a guarantee of future performance and involve a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.