The World TB Day 2011 campaign, “On the move against TB: Transforming the fight towards elimination,” challenges us to undertake the fight against TB with the end goal of eliminating this highly infectious and lethal disease. Two billion people or one-third of the world’s population is infected with TB bacilli, the microbes that cause TB. The World Health Organization estimates that there are over 9 million new TB cases and 1.7 million deaths from TB annually.

“One of the barriers identified towards eliminating TB is the lack of a fully effective vaccine in the market,” said Fuad El-Hibri, chairman and chief executive officer of Emergent BioSolutions. “As a collaborator in the Oxford-Emergent Tuberculosis Consortium (OETC), Emergent’s joint venture with the University of Oxford, to develop what could be the first new TB vaccine in 90 years, we are pleased to be working toward a solution to address this global health emergency.”

A Phase IIb clinical trial involving 2,784 infants is currently underway in Worcester, South Africa to evaluate the efficacy of MVA85A, the world’s most clinically advanced tuberculosis vaccine in development. The trial entails administering MVA85A as a booster to the BCG vaccine and is being conducted by the University of Cape Town’s South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative, in partnership with OETC and Aeras Global TB Foundation.

On World TB Day and beyond, Emergent hopes to raise public awareness of TB and the importance of new vaccines to help curtail the global health problem of tuberculosis. For more information, visit www.emergentbiosolutions.com/tbvaccine and view “OETC: Endeavor to End Tuberculosis,” a video that focuses on the efforts of OETC to further develop MVA85A.

About Emergent BioSolutions Inc.

Emergent BioSolutions protects and enhances life by developing and manufacturing vaccines and therapeutics that are supplied to healthcare providers and purchasers for use in preventing and treating disease. Emergent’s marketed and investigational products target infectious diseases, oncology and autoimmune disorders. Additional information about the company may be found at www.emergentbiosolutions.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements, other than statements of historical fact, including statements regarding our strategy, future operations, future financial position, future revenues, projected costs, prospects, plans and objectives of management, and any other statements containing the words “believes”, “expects”, “anticipates”, “plans”, “estimates” and similar expressions, are forward-looking statements. There are a number of important factors that could cause the actual results of the Consortium or Emergent to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements, including the timing of, and the potential for successful outcomes resulting from, future product development efforts; the ability of the Consortium or Emergent to obtain additional funding for product development efforts; plans of the Consortium and Emergent to expand manufacturing facilities and capabilities; the rate and degree of market acceptance and clinical utility of products; and other factors identified in Emergent’s Annual Report for the year ended December 31, 2010 and subsequent reports filed with the SEC. The Consortium and Emergent disclaim any intention or obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of developments occurring after the date of this press release.

SOURCE: Emergent BioSolutions Inc.

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Company management will host a conference call at 5:00 pm Eastern on March 10, 2011 to discuss the financial results for the fourth quarter and full twelve months of 2010, recent business developments and the forecast for 2011. The conference call will be accessible by dialing 888/713-4205 or 617/213-4862 (international) and providing passcode 91804244. A webcast of the conference call will be accessible from the company’s website at www.emergentbiosolutions.com, under “Investors”.

Emergent BioSolutions is offering call participants a pre-registration option that expedites access to the call and minimizes hold times. Pre-registrants will be issued a pin number to be used when dialing into the live call which will provide quick access to the conference call by bypassing the operator upon connection. Pre-registration, while not mandatory, can be accessed using the following website: www.theconferencingservice.com/prereg/key.process?key=PWXFXF88Y.

A replay of the conference call will be accessible, approximately two hours following the conclusion of the call, by dialing 888/286-8010 or 617/801-6888 and using the passcode 77289976. The replay will be available through March 24, 2011. The webcast will be archived on the company’s website, www.emergentbiosolutions.com, under “Investors”.

About Emergent BioSolutions Inc.

Emergent BioSolutions, led by Chairman and CEO Fuad El-Hibri, protects and enhances life by developing and manufacturing vaccines and therapeutics that are supplied to healthcare providers and purchasers for use in preventing and treating disease. Emergent’s marketed and investigational products target infectious diseases, oncology and autoimmune disorders. Additional information about the company may be found at www.emergentbiosolutions.com.

SOURCE: Emergent BioSolutions Inc.

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Marie-José Daoud

Awarded the Ernst and Young prize for Entrepreneur of the year 2009 in the Technology category for the Greater Washington region last June, Fuad El-Hibri is the CEO of Emergent Biosolutions, an American company that supplies the anthrax vaccine to the American government. He is in line for the national E&Y 2009 prize, which will be awarded on November 14 in California
He is a tall, imposing and smiling man. He has the assurance of those who are proud of their career and the modesty of those who attribute their success to the staff around them. He has just won the Ernst and Young prize for Entrepreneur of the year 2009 in the Technology category for the Greater Washington region. This prize rewards over 15 years in the biopharmaceutical industry, ten of which have been dedicated to Emergent Biosolutions, the company that supplies the only anthrax vaccine approved by the American government’s powerful Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Fuad El-Hibri landed in biopharmaceuticals somewhat by chance and somewhat by interest. He defines himself as “an entrepreneur in spirit” and, before dedicating himself to biopharmaceuticals, he had already created and sold various telecommunications companies in Russia, Venezuela and El Salvador. In the early 90s, this German native, born to a Lebanese father and a German mother, and who had spent time in the banking industry (Citibank) and consultant (BoozAllen & Hamilton), joins Porton Product, a biotechnology company located in the United Kingdom. There he plays a predominant role in marketing and sales of biodefense vaccines to foreign governments. Hibri is, in particular, a key man behind the purchase by Saudi Arabia of anthrax vaccines during the first Gulf war. This is where he maintains he gained his insight into the magnitude of the need for medical solutions to combat bioterrorism. In 1994, he organized the buy-back of Porton Products by its managers, before reselling his shares in 1996 (the price is not known).

In 1998, an opportunity opened up for him to buy BioThrax in competitive bidding, the only anti-anthrax vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration, until then owned by the State of Michigan. So he creates BioPort, obtains American nationality . in 1999, wins the bidding (approximately 24 million dollars) and finds himself at the head of a company with 170 employees, and develops a product: BioThrax.

Hibri has in fact the advantage of a monopoly situation since he is the only supplier of the American government who buys millions of doses of BioThrax per year from him to vaccinate its servicemen and to maintain a stock in case of bioterrorist attack. A situation which fuels all the controversies, as proved by the frenzied comments posted on the Internet.

Once BioPort is consolidated, and to diversify his portfolio, Hibri buys several biotechnology companies. In 2003, BioPort buys Antex, an American company working on the development of a vaccine against chlamydia. In 2005, the company, which in the meantime has become Emergent Biosolutions, acquired Microscience, an English company which had invested in research on hepatitis B and typhoid. In 2006, it purchased VIVACS, a German company specialized in research on the influenza vaccine. In 2008, it does a joint venture with Oxford University (among others) to develop a vaccine against tuberculosis.

Today, Emergent is at the head of a developing portfolio of vaccines and treatments against seven diseases which could bring in “hundreds of millions of dollars per year” when the products are on the market, according to Hibri. Four of these should be on the market within four to seven years. Most of these products have the specific feature of only requiring two technologies that the company has: a technology for vaccines given orally and another for vaccines administered by injection. “Which leads to major synergies enabling substantial cost savings to be made,” explains Hibri. But Emergent is in direct competition with large pharmaceutical laboratories such as Sanofi, Novartis and Roche on the development of these treatments and vaccines, of more commercial use than BioThrax. Furthermore, even with anthrax, Emergent will probably have to face competition from other biotechnology laboratories, like PharmAthene and Cangene, who are currently in the development phase of vaccines and treatment against the bacterium. In the meantime, to meet increasing demand from the American government, and that of other foreign governments who fill out its client portfolio, Emergent has recently invested in its BioThrax production capacity: it has gone from a capacity of three million doses per year to eight million and is currently validating a new factory in Michigan which can produce up to 40 million doses per year.

Today, eleven years after acquiring BioThrax, the latter, still provides the bulk of the company’s turnover (178.6 million dollars in 2008), the other part coming from development contracts with the government and revenue granted by public or private funds.

Anthrax

Anthrax is an infectious disease caused by the spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis.

Anthrax most commonly occurs in wild and domestic animals but it can also occur in humans when they are exposed to infected animals or tissue from infected animals.

The disease is transmitted by spores, or contaminated hide, but not from human to human. Cultivation of the bacterium and spores are relatively easy in a laboratory, which makes it an ideal biological weapon.

The company has 600 employees and has been quoted on the New York stock exchange since 2006, with a capitalization of 500 million dollars. Hibri, his family and his management staff keep control of the company with over half of the capital. Emergent has a presence in the United States, United Kingdom, Singapore, China and Germany. And for seven years, between 2000 and 2007, it has experienced uninterrupted growth.

This is partially why the E&Y prize was awarded to Hibri. Other criteria were also taken into account: his ability to inspire his staff, who, he himself acknowledges are “dedicated and motivated”; and his philanthropic involvement in numerous charity organizations, among which the El-Hibri Charitable Foundation, created by his father, that among other things finances the Dar Al-Aytam orphanage in Lebanon.
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www.emergentbiosolutions.com

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