Maxygen, Inc. today announced that it has achieved a key milestone in its collaboration with Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., resulting in the extension of the collaborative research for two additional years. As a result of this achievement, the collaboration will continue until at least December 2003.

In December 1998, Maxygen entered into a strategic collaboration with Pioneer for the development of a portfolio of products for specific crop protection and quality grain traits in corn, soybeans and certain other crops using Maxygen's proprietary MolecularBreeding(TM) directed molecular evolution technologies.

"We are delighted to have achieved this key milestone in our collaboration with Pioneer,'' said John  Bedbrook, President of Maxygen Agriculture. "Our collaboration is less than two years old and this achievement demonstrates Maxygen's ability to deliver results and validates the technical potential of the application of our proprietary directed evolution technologies to agriculture.''

"The speed and efficiency in which Maxygen was able to deliver this milestone underscores our belief in the value of their technologies,'' said Tony Cavalieri Vice President of Trait and Technology Development at Pioneer. "This technology is one of many valuable tools we use to continue developing agricultural crop products that deliver high value to our customers.''

Maxygen, Inc., headquartered in Redwood City, CA, is focused on creating novel products using its proprietary technologies for a broad range of industries. Maxygen's technologies bring together advances in molecular biology and classical breeding to capitalize on the large amount of genetic information generated by genomics. Maxygen's target markets include protein pharmaceuticals, preventative and therapeutic vaccines, chemicals and agriculture. Maxygen has strategic collaborations with leading companies including Novo Nordisk, Pioneer Hi-Bred, DSM, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Lundbeck, and Rio Tinto as well as government funding from DARPA and NIST-ATP.

Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., a DuPont business, is the world's leading supplier of agricultural genetics and the leading developer and integrator of agricultural technology. Headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, Pioneer develops, produces and markets a full line of seeds, forage/grain additives and services to farmers, grain processors and other customers worldwide.

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