ProdiGene, Inc. and Genencor International, Inc. announced today that they have expanded their
strategic collaboration to develop enzyme products utilizing transgenic plants.

Under an existing agreement announced October 23, 1997, Genencor received an option to
expand the scope of the alliance to develop additional enzymes. Recently, Genencor exercised its option and has agreed to fund the development of additional products with ProdiGene.

"We have been very pleased with the progress of our collaboration with ProdiGene, and it was a
logical step to expand the scope of the alliance,'' stated Dr. Karl Sanford, Vice President of
Technology Development for Genencor.

The alliance combines ProdiGene's expertise in producing recombinant proteins in transgenic plants with Genencor's proprietary enzyme technologies. Under the expanded agreement ProdiGene will receive funding from Genencor for research and development of new product candidates and receive additional undisclosed considerations.

"The results of our strategic alliance with Genencor have exceeded our expectations,'' says Robert Dose, Executive Vice President for ProdiGene. "The expansion of our alliance is a direct result of the excellent results we achieved in our laboratories and the collaborative spirit of our relationship with Genencor.''

ProdiGene uses transgenic plants to manufacture a full array of active and complex recombinant
proteins efficiently and economically. Plant seeds provide a convenient storage form for
recombinant proteins and production scale-up is as simple as planting additional seeds. The seeds can be used as the delivery system for the proteins, or the proteins can be extracted for use in other ways. Overall, plants offer an inexpensive source of high value proteins on a large-scale basis, one of the basic reasons why raw material costs for recombinant proteins from plants are below the cost of other recombinant systems.

"ProdiGene has made excellent progress since its formation in 1996. We have achieved our
technical and commercial milestones, expanded our product pipeline, and formed key alliances with industry leaders such as Genencor to develop additional products that will continue to create
stakeholder value," said John A. Howard, President and Chief Executive Officer of ProdiGene.

ProdiGene, headquartered in College Station, Texas, is a biotechnology company that is developing numerous industrial and pharmaceutical proteins from plants. The company was the world's first to successfully commercialize recombinant proteins from genetically engineered plants. ProdiGene holds a series of patents and has the commercial expertise that provides it with a leadership position in this exciting new field.

Genencor International, Inc. is a 50-50 joint venture between Eastman Chemical Co. (Kingsport,
TN) and Cultor Ltd. (Helsinki, Finland) and is based in Rochester, New York. It is one of the
world's largest developers and manufacturers of enzymes. The company employs more than 1,000 people worldwide and operates state-of-the-art biotechnology research, development and
manufacturing facilities in Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific region.

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