Redwood City, California
November 12,  2001

Maxygen, Inc. (Nasdaq: MAXY) announced today that it has delivered two agriculture product candidates to Syngenta AG for advancement into development. Maxygen established its five-year collaboration with Syngenta in August 1999 to create a portfolio of products with trait improvements for pest and disease control as well as other traits for quality, nutrition and productivity benefits.

"We are very pleased that Syngenta has decided to take these product candidates into crop testing. It is a clear demonstration of the ability of our MolecularBreeding(TM) technologies to rapidly generate potential commercial targets," said John Bedbrook, Ph.D., President of Maxygen's Agriculture business unit.

With the successful delivery of these product candidates, and the announcement earlier today that Novozymes A/S would take into development two industrial enzyme product candidates created by Maxygen's proprietary MolecularBreeding(TM) technologies, Maxygen has now surpassed its goal of advancing three industrial product candidates into development in 2001. Maxygen announced earlier this year that it had also satisfied its goal of advancing two human therapeutics products into formal pre-clinical development.

"Maxygen has been very successful this year in advancing our broad portfolio of over 40 potential products, and we now have four human therapeutic and ten industrial product candidates in development," said Russell Howard, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Maxygen. "Looking forward, we expect to both expand the number of products we have in development as well as to continue to move our products already in development forward towards commercialization."

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 create novel biotechnology products. Maxygen has 19 strategic collaborations with industry leaders and a pipeline of over 40 potential products, including 14 in development.

Company news release
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