Redwood City, California
October 28, 2002

MaxyAg, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Maxygen, Inc. (Nasdaq: MAXY), today announced that MaxyAg has changed its name to Verdia, Inc. Verdia, Inc. is dedicated to becoming a global leader in providing proprietary product solutions to important commercial problems in plant-based businesses through the application of advanced DNA breeding methods.

"Our new name, Verdia, is based on the latin words 'viridis,' meaning 'green' or 'flourishing,' and 'via' meaning 'road' or 'way.' This name symbolizes our mission, which is to build a strong company through the development and commercialization of improved and new, environmentally-sustainable transgenic products for major agricultural markets," said John Bedbrook, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Verdia.

"Our chemical and agriculture subsidiaries, Codexis and Verdia, are now each strongly positioned for success in their respective markets with a relevant brand identity, independent and experienced management teams, multiple partnerships and broad product pipelines," said Russell Howard, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Maxygen. "This announcement is consistent with Maxygen's human therapeutics focus and our desire to enable the rapid growth of our industrial businesses in order to capture the value of our product optimization technologies across multiple industries."

Verdia has validated the use of MolecularBreeding(TM) directed molecular evolution technologies in agriculture through its strategic alliances with industry leaders, including Syngenta and DuPont Pioneer Hi-Bred. Each of these partners currently has two products created by Verdia in development. In addition to the product candidates in development with its partners, Verdia has a pipeline of over 10 potential agriculture products in various stages of development.

DeltaMax cotton product moves forward in development

Separately, Verdia announced that DeltaMax Cotton LLC, its joint venture with Delta and Pine Land Company, will move a proprietary glyphosate-resistant lead into cotton product development. DeltaMax Cotton LLC was formed in May 2002 to develop and commercialize innovative gene leads developed using MolecularBreeding(TM) directed molecular evolution technologies for the cotton seed market.

"Results from our first round of plant testing with our proprietary glyphosate tolerance system are unequivocally positive and we are initiating introduction of this important trait into cotton," said Bedbrook. "This is the fifth Verdia product to move forward into development, further validating MolecularBreeding(TM) directed molecular evolution technologies for the optimization of genes for agriculture products."

According to USDA figures, glyphosate-tolerant cotton seed constituted more than 70 percent of the cotton planted in the U.S. in 2002. The "technology value" of this seed, or the revenue attributable to the glyphosate-tolerant trait, is estimated to be over $250 million per year.

Biotechnology cotton crops, first introduced to the market in 1996, have been adopted rapidly by cotton farmers. The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA) estimates that the worldwide biotech cotton acreage was approximately 6.8 million hectares in 2001, or 16.8 million acres, an increase of 28 percent from the 2000 worldwide biotech cotton acreage of approximately 5.3 million hectares.

Maxygen, Inc., headquartered in Redwood City, Calif., is focused on creating novel products using its integrated proprietary technologies for human therapeutics and industrial applications. Maxygen's technologies bring together advances in molecular biology and protein modification to create novel biotechnology products. Maxygen has entered into over 20 strategic collaborations with industry leaders and together with its subsidiaries has a pipeline of over 40 potential products, including 16 in
development.