September 15, 2000

Maxygen and The Scripps Research Institute Establish Collaboration for Development of Novel HIV Therapies and Vaccines

Redwood City, Calif., September 14, 2000 - Maxygen, Inc. (Nasdaq: MAXY) today announced that it has established a research and screening collaboration with The Scripps Research Institute to identify potential vaccine candidates for the treatment and prevention of HIV. Maxygen will use its proprietary MolecularBreeding™ directed molecular evolution technologies to create novel antigens capable of generating immune responses against the HIV virus. Dennis Burton, Ph.D., and Paul Parren, Ph.D., of The Scripps Institute will analyze the novel antigens for their ability to immunize against the HIV virus.

“We are pleased to have this relationship with two outstanding HIV specialists at The Scripps Institute,” said Robert Whalen, Senior Research Fellow at Maxygen. “This work will allow us to demonstrate the potential of our proprietary directed evolution technologies and their application in preventing this devastating disease.”

The Scripps Research Institute is one of the country’s largest, private, non-profit research organizations. The Institute stands at the forefront of basic biomedical science, a vital segment of medical research that seeks to understand the fundamental processes of life. In just three decades the Institute has established a lengthy track record of major contributions to the betterment of health and the human condition.

Maxygen, Inc. (Nasdaq: MAXY) headquartered in Redwood City, California, is focused on creating novel products using its proprietary directed evolution technologies for a broad range of industries. Maxygen’s revolutionary technologies bring together the advances in molecular biology and classical breeding while capitalizing on the large amount of genetic information generated by genomics. These proprietary technologies have been published extensively in prestigious publications including Nature, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Medicine, and Science. Maxygen currently has a pipeline of over 40 potential products in its four major target markets of protein pharmaceuticals, preventative and therapeutic vaccines, chemicals and agriculture. Maxygen has strategic collaborations with several leading companies including Novo Nordisk, DuPont, Pfizer, DSM, AstraZeneca, and Rio Tinto as well as government funding from DARPA and NIST-ATP.

Except for the historical information contained herein, this news release contains forward-looking statements including those relating to the potential results of the collaboration with The Scripps Research Institute; the attributes of any resulting products and the ability of our technologies to generate products effective against the HIV virus. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause results to differ materially from those set forth in these statements. Among other things these risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to the inability to produce viable product candidates; the ability of competitors producing superior products and the ability of Maxygen to enter into and/or maintain research and commercialization collaborations. These and other risk factors are more fully discussed in Maxygen’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1999, including under the caption “Risk Factors,” and in Maxygen’s other periodic reports filed with the SEC, all of which are available from Maxygen or from the SEC’s website (www.sec.gov). Maxygen disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement contained herein to reflect any change in Maxygen’s expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions, or circumstances on which any such statement is based. MolecularBreedingTM and Maxygen are U.S trademarks used by Maxygen.

Return to News