DSM Invests in Personalized Nutrition

03/04/06 DSM Venturing, the corporate venturing unit of Royal DSM N.V., has announced that it has participated in a follow-on financing round of 6.5 million USD in the personalized nutrition company Sciona. Herewith DSM has become a major shareholder in Sciona. Sciona is a privately held, international company that provides personalized health and nutrition recommendations based on an individual's diet, lifestyle and unique genetic profile.

Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado with offices in Europe, and research facilities on the Yale University campus, the Company has created a powerful set of tools that enables consumers to harness the scientific information uncovered in the Human Genome Project.

Personalized nutrition is nutrition based on individual dietary recommendations derived from knowledge of the individual’s lifestyle, nutritional status and/or genetic makeup. It is aimed at promoting health, well-being, performance and potentially reducing the risk of health problems. DSM has decided to focus on personalized nutrition as one of its key innovation areas because it optimally combines DSM’s strengths in nutrition, food and biotechnology with the demands of a more health conscious and aging population.

Rob van Leen, Chief Innovation Officer at DSM: ‘We are very pleased with our increased shareholding in Sciona because relations like these will help us to accelerate our activities in the emerging business area of personalized nutrition. We will further increase our interaction with Sciona via a supervisory board representative and joint development projects.’