Research Triangle Park, North Carolina
November 4, 2002

Athenix Corporation, a leading biotechnology company developing innovative, high-value, bio-industrial products for the Agricultural and Chemical businesses using genetic traits from microbes, announced it has obtained a commercial license from Japan Tobacco Inc. for a proprietary transformation system known as PureIntroTM. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

"We are very pleased to have secured access to this excellent enabling technology." says Gregory Lewis, Vice President of Business Development for Athenix. "PureIntro™ is one of the critical tools we needed to begin moving our newly discovered, high-value traits into plants."

"Japan Tobacco is very glad to see that Athenix values our proprietary transformation system and its application to the commercialization of products," said Kazuei Obata, Senior Executive Vice President of Japan Tobacco.

Athenix is a leading biotechnology company developing innovative, high-value, bio-industrial products for the Agricultural and Chemical businesses using genetic traits from microbes. These traits are used to develop enhanced plants, microbes, enzymes, and processes capable of providing renewable resources for a variety of industry sectors. Athenix is focused on two major market opportunities: 1) the discovery of genes and proteins for novel input traits and their use to develop transgenic plants for the Agricultural Chemical and Seed Industries; and 2) the discovery of genes and proteins for improved bioconversion in the Chemical, Alternative Energy and Animal Feed Industries. 

Japan Tobacco Inc. is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of tobacco products. Since its privatization in 1985, it has actively diversified its operations into pharmaceuticals and foods.