College Station, Texas
March 13,  2001

ProdiGene, Inc. announced today that it has completed additional financing of over $9 million through the private placement of preferred stock. StaufferSeeds, Inc., a partner providing seed and
grain production for ProdiGene's recombinant proteins, led the financing round. 

The funding from the financing will be used to further develop and commercialize recombinant proteins produced from the company's technology platform, which involves transgenic plants. 

"ProdiGene already markets several recombinant proteins," says Anthony Laos, ProdiGene's CEO and Chairman of the Board. "The economies of scale for protein production using corn are truly impressive." 

ProdiGene is focused on the development and production of high quality, high value recombinant proteins in a cost effective manner. Potential products include vaccines for humans and animals and therapeutic pharmaceuticals such as monoclonal antibodies. 

"There is much concern today in the biopharmaceutical marketplace because of limited production capacity for the novel new drugs being developed," says Laos. "Analysts project that in five years demand will more than double today's total production capacity. ProdiGene's transgenic system is capable of meeting the projected shortfall with minimal capital investment. Additionally, recombinant plant proteins are inherently free of mammalian contaminants, such as prions associated with bovine spongiform encephalopathy, better known as Mad Cow disease." 

ProdiGene, headquartered in College Station, Texas, is a private biotechnology company that is developing and manufacturing recombinant proteins from transgenic plants for the human pharmaceutical, animal health and industrial protein markets. ProdiGene has rights to over 100 issued and pending patents. The company was the world's first to successfully commercialize recombinant proteins from transgenic plants. It is also the only company to have commercialized recombinant proteins from plants for the biopharmaceutical and industrial markets. ProdiGene has the commercial expertise that provides it with a leadership position in this new field. 

Company news release
N3379