National Milk Bank Becomes Affiliate to Prolacta Bioscience

MONROVIA, Calif. Sept. 23, 2011 -- Prolacta Bioscience (Prolacta), the first and only company to offer human milk fortifier (HMF) made from 100% human breast milk for critically ill, premature infants, has announced an agreement to establish National Milk Bank as a Prolacta affiliate milk bank partner. Prolacta received its first shipment of milk from National Milk Bank on August 3rd under a non-exclusive agreement and enters into an exclusive agreement that ensures all milk collected through National Milk Bank will be sent to Prolacta for their human milk formulations beginning Sept 22, 2011.

Under the terms of the agreement, National Milk Bank will recruit potential breast milk donors for Prolacta. Once mothers are identified, Prolacta will qualify the donors and obtain medical confirmations for both the mother and baby. Prolacta will also be responsible for collecting, testing, and processing the donor milk. All qualified milk will be used to make human milk-based nutritional products for hospitalized, critically ill, premature babies who are in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The manufacturing process can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVOez3yqxzw. Prolacta’s primary product, Prolact+ H2MF®, is the only Human Milk Fortifier (HMF) made from 100% human milk, and is prescribed by neonatologists for infants weighing 2 pounds 12 ounces or less at birth. Prolact+ H2MF can only be used in a hospital setting and cannot be purchased directly by consumers. In order to increase the protein and other caloric needs of the baby, Prolact+ H2MF is added to the mother’s breast milk or to donor milk, if a mother’s own milk is unavailable. This feeding solution has proven to have several clinical benefits, and provides an exclusively human milk diet for the fragile infant.

"The heart of the National Milk Bank has always been for the benefit of critically ill, premature infants in the NICU,” said Stacy Brown and Kim Henson, founders of the National Milk Bank. “We look forward to partnering with Prolacta Bioscience to provide an avenue for generous moms to donate their breast milk that blesses the precious babies and their families."

Recent studies underscore the importance of human milk-based nutrition for premature infants in the NICU. A groundbreaking study published by the Journal of Pediatrics in 2010 concluded that when Prolact+ H2MF was added to human milk, the odds of developing necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) was reduced by 77% in premature infants weighing between 500 and 1250g at birth, when compared to infants receiving human milk fortified with cow milk-based HMF, or compared to preterm infant formula when supply of mother’s own milk was insufficient.

In addition, earlier this year Johns Hopkins Children’s Center released study results which showed that extremely premature babies fed human donor milk are less likely to develop the dangerous intestinal condition NEC, compared to babies fed a standard premature formula (often referred as preterm infant formula) derived from cow's milk. The study was the first of its kind to compare the risk of developing NEC and requiring NEC surgery among premature infants on an exclusively human milk diet versus those fed preterm infant formula derived from cow’s milk. Further information regarding the study can be found at http://www.hopkinschildrens.org/Human- Donor-Milk-Lower-Risk-for-Premature-Babies.aspx.

“National Milk Bank’s longstanding relationship with breast milk donor mothers in the community will result in increased nutritional support that has been clinically proven to make an impact in the quality of life for preemies in the NICU,” said Joe Fournell, vice president of operations at Prolacta Bioscience. “National Milk Bank was previously an affiliate of Prolacta from 2006 through 2009, and we look forward to working with them again.”

Milk banks affiliated or operated by Prolacta collect milk from moms who have a surplus of breast milk.

About Prolacta Bioscience

Prolacta Bioscience, Inc. (www.prolacta.com) is a life science company dedicated to improving quality of life by Advancing the Science of Human Milk. Prolacta creates specialty formulations made exclusively from human milk for the nutritional needs of critically ill premature infants in neonatal intensive care units. It is the first and only company to provide a human milk fortifier made from 100% human milk, Prolact+ H2MF. They operate a pharmaceutical grade processing plant and have designed and patented processes that enable them to make their one-of-a-kind life-saving products. Prolacta is committed to making a meaningful difference in the lives of the most vulnerable infants through world-class research and innovative products.

Media Contact:

Loren Kosmont loren@pstrategies.net 310-721-9444