Genencor Positions Bioproducts Group to Expand the Boundaries of Biotechnology

Genencor International (NASDAQ:GCOR) today announced plans to substantially broaden its core business in the consumer, industrial and agri-processing markets. To shepherd a number of growth opportunities, the company has added Gary Hooper as vice president, business development for bioproducts.

Over the last two decades, Genencor has become a recognized leader in protein and pathway engineering by discovering, optimizing, manufacturing and delivering enzymes around the globe. The company has built its profitable business on the discovery and development of high performance enzymes, which are proteins, that wash clothes and clean dishes; that give jeans a soft feel and a stonewashed look, that convert corn starch to sweetener for soft drinks, and that increase the nutritional value of animal feed. The company has also been at the forefront of developing biological routes to chemicals that use renewable raw materials.

Using its integrated suite of technology platforms called i-biotech™, the company plans to expand the markets of biotechnology into three areas with high-growth potential: personal care, biomaterials and agri-processing.

"Many expert groups including the National Academy of Science believe that biotechnology will have the same kind of impact on industry in this century as the physical and chemical sciences had on the last," said W. Thomas Mitchell, chairman and CEO of Genencor. "Our i-biotechÔ platform, developed over the last two decades, gives us the confidence to have an ambitious vision for the future."

Genencor has already demonstrated the potential of its technology platforms. In the personal care market, the company is developing low allergenic and hypoallergenic enzymes and targeted peptides for consumer products in skin, oral, and hair care applications. These new, innovative active ingredients will bring many new benefits to consumers. The company has also achieved milestone successes in the development of new enzyme systems enabling the use of biomass for the economic development of energy, biochemicals and materials.

"The strategy is simple - build on our profitable business foundation and use our technology platforms to propel us into new large markets," said Thomas Pekich group vice president of bioproducts for Genencor. "We have demonstrated the success of our blue chip collaboration strategy and expect to make some exciting announcements in the near future that will take us into the development of novel biobased products."

To facilitate the business development activities necessary to accelerate growth in the biomaterials arena, Genencor has recently hired Gary Hooper, 55, to the post of vice president of business development for the bioproducts business. Hooper has over 20 years of progressive responsibility and a track record of biotechnology business development success. He will be responsible for guiding the group's biomaterials business strategy and will report to Thomas Pekich, group vice president of bioproducts. He joins the management team of seasoned executives in the bioproducts organization.

About Genencor
Genencor International is a diversified biotechnology company that develops and delivers innovative products and services into the health care, consumer, industrial and agri-processing markets. Using an integrated set of technology platforms, Genencor's products deliver innovative and sustainable solutions to many of the problems of everyday life.

Genencor was established in 1982 as a joint venture between Genentech Inc. and Corning Incorporated. Since its founding, Genencor has grown to become a leading biotechnology company, with over $315 million in year 2000 annual revenues, more than 250 biotechnology products in commerce, and over 3,400 owned and licensed patents and applications. Genencor, with more than 1,500 employees worldwide, has principal offices in Palo Alto, California; Rochester, New York; and Leiden, the Netherlands.

This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance and all other statements which are other than statements of historical fact, including without limitation, statements containing words such as "believes," "anticipates," "expects," "estimates," "projects," "will," "may," "might" and words of a similar nature. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Some important factors that could cause actual results to differ include significant fluctuations in product performance depending on factors such as a dependence on the efforts of third parties, new and uncertain technology employed by Genencor and its uncertain application to new business ventures, failure to develop products for the health care markets, inability to complete certain transactions and realize anticipated benefits from acquisitions, dependence on intellectual property rights, the competitive nature of Genencor's industry and risks of obsolescence of certain technology. These and other risk factors are more fully discussed in Genencor's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K or Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements contained in this release represent the judgment of Genencor as of the date of this release. Genencor disclaims, however, any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

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