Lifecore Biomedical Expands Relationship with Existing Long-Term Customer Through a Series of Commercial Arrangements

Lifecore enters into commercial agreements with Alcon that include new 8-year commercial manufacturing arrangements

Lifecore receives amendment and waiver for its term debt facility with Alcon and BMO

CHASKA, Minn., Jan. 05, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lifecore Biomedical, Inc. (NASDAQ: LFCR) ("Lifecore" or the “Company”), a fully integrated contract development and manufacturing organization (“CDMO”), today announced that it has finalized a series of updated commercial arrangements with its long-term commercial Hyaluronic Acid and CDMO customer, Alcon (SIX/NYSE: ALC) (Alcon) to extend and expand the existing CDMO relationship. Additionally, the Company also entered into a limited waiver and amendment to its credit agreements with Alcon and with BMO to, among other things, waive certain financial reporting delivery requirements. With these agreements in place, Lifecore continues to advance its work on becoming current on its periodic reports, including completing the filing of its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended May 28, 2023 (the “2023 Form 10-K”), which it anticipates being completed in the near-term.

James G. Hall, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lifecore, stated, “We are excited to finalize these agreements with our long-term customer, Alcon, which expand our relationship and provide Lifecore additional financial flexibility and opportunities to broaden the scope of support for their portfolio of products.   We believe that these agreements will help facilitate our next chapter of growth together after a successful 40-year relationship, which has been based on trust. This demonstrates how our unique set of capabilities positions us as the partner of choice to help our customers bring their complex innovations to market.”

Expansion of the Alcon Commercial Arrangements
On December 31, 2023, Lifecore entered into a series of commercial agreements with Alcon, including (i) a long-term 8-year extension of its contract manufacturing agreement, which, among other things, contemplates increased capacity of aseptic manufacturing services; (ii) an amendment to its Hyaluronic Acid (“HA”) supply agreement to provide Alcon with an option to purchase additional HA equipment to accommodate expected future capacity needs; and (iii) new Storage Services Agreement for Lifecore to store certain of Alcon’s HA ingredients that are manufactured by Lifecore.