Redwood City, California
December 21, 2000

Maxygen Inc. today announced that it has delivered a lead development agriculture candidate to Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. Maxygen commenced its strategic collaboration with Pioneer in December 1998.

"This was an extremely challenging project, as we demanded improved product properties in several key properties, requiring greater than ten fold improvement of this lead across three activity parameters,'' said John Bedbrook, Ph.D., President of Maxygen's Agriculture unit. "Having achieved success within 18 months, this accomplishment underscores Maxygen's ability to rapidly provide diverse, functional lead candidates to its strategic collaborators.''

"We are committed to providing our customers with high-value products,'' said Tony Cavalieri, Vice President of Trait and Technology Development at Pioneer. "This is one of the many valuable tools we use in combination with our superior crop genetics to develop products. The rapid delivery of this lead candidate demonstrates the power and efficiency of Maxygen's technology.''

Maxygen, Inc. headquartered in Redwood City, California, 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 capitalize on the large amount of genetic information generated by genomics to create novel biotechnology products. Maxygen currently has a pipeline of over 40 potential products. Maxygen has strategic collaborations with leading companies including Lundbeck, Pfizer, Chevron, Novozymes, DSM, Hercules, Rio Tinto, DuPont and Syngenta as well as U.S.A. 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.

Company news release
N3214