Oncothyreon to Leverage Alpine’s Protocell Technology to Enable Targeted
Delivery of Molecular Therapeutics for Serious Diseases

Company to Hold Conference Call at 4:30 p.m. EDT Today

SEATTLE, WA, Aug. 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/ – Oncothyreon Inc. (NASDAQ: ONTY), a
biotechnology company specializing in the development of innovative
therapeutic products for the treatment of cancer, today announced that
it has acquired Alpine Biosciences, Inc., of Seattle, Washington, a
privately held biotechnology company developing protocells, a
nanoparticle platform technology designed to enable the targeted
delivery of multiple therapeutic agents, including nucleic acids,
proteins, peptides and small molecules. Oncothyreon intends to utilize
the protocell technology to develop new product candidates for the
treatment of cancer and rare diseases, either on its own or with
partners.

“We believe the acquisition of Alpine and its protocell technology
brings to Oncothyreon a delivery platform with the potential to
revolutionize multiple therapeutic fields,” said Robert L. Kirkman,
M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Oncothyreon. “The
acquisition is a significant step towards achieving our vision of
building a fully integrated biotechnology company, with the capability
of developing new proprietary product candidates to complement our
strong existing clinical pipeline. As an oncology company, we are
particularly intrigued by potential applications in cancer and cancer
immunotherapy. We also intend to seek partners to work with us to
develop product candidates in other fields, including gene therapy,
siRNA and mRNA therapy, enzyme replacement and the targeted delivery of
toxins.”

Jay Venkatesan, M.D., Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Alpine,
will join Oncothyreon as Executive Vice President and General Manager
with primary responsibility for the protocell development program. Dr.
Venkatesan said, “I am looking forward to joining Oncothyreon to help
transform the treatment of cancer and rare diseases. I believe
Oncothyreon’s technical and clinical expertise, as well as existing
infrastructure, will help speed the development of the protocell
technology to rapidly bring products into clinical development. I also
believe in the potential of Oncothyreon’s existing pipeline, including
ONT-380 for HER2-positive breast cancer, and the immunotherapeutic
product candidates, tecemotide and ONT-10.” Alpine was founded by
Mitchell H. Gold, M.D., in 2012.

Protocells were developed by a multidisciplinary team of scientists at
the University of New Mexico (UNM), the UNM Cancer Center, and Sandia
National Laboratories. The UNM Cancer Center is one of just 68 premier
cancer centers in the nation recognized by the National Cancer
Institute (NCI) for its scientific excellence, contributions to cancer
research and delivery of innovative treatment to patients in New
Mexico. Sandia National Laboratories, also located in Albuquerque, New
Mexico, is a Department of Energy-owned national laboratory with
significant expertise in material science technologies for
biotechnology applications.

“We believe that this combination of talent and resources will
accelerate the clinical development of the protocell technology and
will lead to better therapies for currently intractable diseases,” said
Lisa Kuuttila, CEO & Chief Economic Development Officer of STC.UNM, the
technology-transfer and economic-development organization of UNM, which
began collaborating with Alpine Biosciences on the protocell platform
in 2013. “We look forward to collaborating with Oncothyreon in the
future as they advance this platform.”

Upon closing of the transaction, Oncothyreon issued approximately 9.3
million shares of Oncothyreon common stock in exchange for all of the
outstanding stock of Alpine Biosciences. The issued shares represent
approximately ten percent of Oncothyreon’s fully-diluted common stock
on a post-transaction basis. The shares are subject to certain resale
restrictions. Based on the closing price of Oncothyreon shares on
August 8, 2014, the merger consideration is valued at approximately $27
million.

About Protocells

The protocell technology is a nanotherapeutic platform based on a silica
core and a supported lipid surface layer. Protocells are able to
encapsulate large quantities of nucleic acids, proteins, peptides,
small molecules, and toxins and deliver them in a highly-targeted
fashion, both to specific cells and to particular organelles within
cells.

Conference Call and Webcast

Oncothyreon will conduct a conference call today, August 11, 2014 at
4:30 p.m. Eastern time (1:30 p.m. Pacific time) to discuss its
acquisition of Alpine Biosciences, its second quarter 2014 financial
results and its pipeline of products in development. To participate in
the call by telephone, please dial (877) 280-7291 (United States) or
(707) 287-9361 (International). In addition, the call will be webcast
live and can be accessed on the “Events” page of the “News & Events”
section of Oncothyreon’s website at www.oncothyreon.com. An archive of the webcast will be available after completion of the
discussion and will be posted on Oncothyreon’s website.

About Oncothyreon

Oncothyreon is a biotechnology company specializing in the development
of innovative therapeutic products for the treatment of cancer that
have the potential to improve the lives and outcomes of cancer
patients. Oncothyreon’s clinical stage pipeline includes the
immunotherapy product candidates tecemotide and ONT-10, and the only
HER-2 small molecule inhibitor in clinical development, ONT-380.
Tecemotide is in the Phase 3 START2 trial for patients with Stage III
non-small cell lung cancer, which is being conducted by Oncothyreon’s
licensee, Merck KgaA of Darmstadt, Germany. ONT-10 is currently in a
Phase 1 trial in patients with various solid tumors and is also
expected to enter a combination trial with varlilumab in collaboration
with Celldex Therapeutics in patients with advanced breast or ovarian
cancer. ONT-380, which is being developed in collaboration with Array
BioPharma, is currently in two Phase 1b trials in patients with
metastatic breast cancer. For more information, visit www.oncothyreon.com.

About Alpine

Alpine Biosciences is a biotechnology company developing protocells, a
novel nanotherapeutics platform, for the treatment of rare diseases and
cancer. This approach enables the targeted delivery of nucleic acids,
proteins, and other large and small molecule payloads, while improving
stability of these payloads and minimizing off-target toxicity and
immune responses. The company is performing preclinical work to begin
a series of IND-enabling studies over the next 12-18 months. For more
information, visit www.alpinebio.com.

Alpine was founded by Mitchell H. Gold, M.D., in 2012. In conjunction
with the acquisition of Alpine by Oncothyreon, the name Alpine
Biosciences and certain related unregistered trademarks and domain
names were assigned to Dr. Gold.

Forward-Looking Statements

In order to provide Oncothyreon’s investors with an understanding of its
current results and future prospects, this release contains statements
that are forward-looking. Any statements contained in this press
release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be
forward-looking statements. Words such as “believes,” “anticipates,”
“plans,” “expects,” “will,” “intends,” “potential,” “possible” and
similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking
statements. These forward-looking statements include Oncothyreon’s
expectations regarding potential development of products using
protocell technology acquired in the Alpine Biosciences acquisition and
potential partnerships for expansion of protocell technology into
additional fields.

Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties related to
Oncothyreon’s business and the general economic environment, many of
which are beyond its control. These risks, uncertainties and other
factors could cause Oncothyreon’s actual results to differ materially
from those projected in forward-looking statements, including the risks
associated with the costs and expenses of developing product candidates
(including those using protocell technology), the adequacy of financing
and cash, cash equivalents and investments, general economic factors,
achievement of the results it anticipates from preclinical and clinical
trials of product candidates (including those using protocell
technology), the ability to secure partnerships for development of
protocell technology in new fields and the ability to adequately obtain
and protect its intellectual property rights. Although Oncothyreon
believes that the forward-looking statements contained herein are
reasonable, it can give no assurance that its expectations are correct.
All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their
entirety by this cautionary statement. For a detailed description of
Oncothyreon’s risks and uncertainties, you are encouraged to review the
documents filed with the securities regulators in the United States on
EDGAR and in Canada on SEDAR. Oncothyreon does not undertake any
obligation to publicly update its forward-looking statements based on
events or circumstances after the date hereof.

Additional Information

Additional information relating to Oncothyreon can be found on EDGAR at www.sec.gov and on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

SOURCE Oncothyreon Inc.