San Diego, California and Winnipeg, Manitoba
May 17,  2001

ValiGen, N.V. announced today that it will develop and market specialty canola products with its new partner, Agricore. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. 

Together, ValiGen and Agricore will develop high value and environmentally friendly consumer products. ValiGen's novel platform technology, Genoplasty(TM), which changes specific DNA sequences by harnessing a cell's natural DNA repair system, will be critical to the product development. 

``ValiGen is looking forward to co-developing high value canola products with Agricore,'' said Dr. Keith Walker, President of ValiGen's Plant and Industrial Products Division. ``ValiGen's agricultural-genomics capabilities will integrate well with Agricore's significant canola seed market distribution and grain handling facilities across Canada.'' 

``Agricore is proud of its new partnership with ValiGen,'' says Dick Klaffke, Agricore's Research and Development Manager. ``We believe ValiGen's Genoplasty will improve our already competitive position in the canola industry by adding value for our farmer customers and consumers.'' 

About Genoplasty 

The specialty canola products will be developed by ValiGen's core genomics technology, Genoplasty, which directs a cell's repair machinery to modify a target gene's sequence. Once delivered to a cell, a custom-designed nucleic acid, or Genoplast(TM), bonds to a target gene's uniquely complementary sequence. This newly formed complex recruits cellular DNA repair enzymes, which read the Genoplast template and faithfully change the target gene's sequence. The naturally modified target gene then encodes the desired protein product. Significantly, this change is a site-specific mutation and does not integrate foreign or ``transgenic'' DNA, as do other technologies. 

Agricore 

Agricore is a farmer-owned co-operative operating on the Great Plains of North America. It  provides fully integrated grain, oilseeds and special crops marketing and handling services through a prairie-wide network of elevators and specialized processing plants. Agricore also handles a full range of agronomic inputs, supplies and services through retail outlets across Canada. 

Agricore is the leading supplier of crop nutrition and crop protection products in Canada and one of Canada's largest grain handling and marketing businesses. With facilities stretching from northeastern British Columbia to Ontario and into the Great Plains, Agricore employs approximately 2,000 people and has more than 80,000 members across western Canada. 

ValiGen 

ValiGen is a privately held European-American biotechnology company deriving commercial value from its integrated suite of genomics and Genoplasty technologies and proprietary databases by producing novel human therapeutics and plants with desirable traits. Agricore joins today ValiGen's other prestigious partners in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. 

Led by an industry-experienced management team and entrepreneurial board of directors, ValiGen has operating labs and offices in: Paris, France; Berlin, Germany; Newtown, Penn. and San Diego. 

Company news release
N3530