Senomyx to Create New Taste Enhancer

10/08/07 Senomyx, Inc., a company focused on using proprietary taste receptor technologies to discover novel flavor ingredients for the packaged food and beverage industry, has said that revenues were $6.8 million for the six months ended June 30, 2007, compared to $5.6 million for the six months ended June 30, 2006, an increase of 21%. The increase is primarily due to revenue recognition that commenced in the second quarter of 2006 in conjunction with a new collaborative agreement, and to the earning of a milestone in the second quarter of 2007. As of June 30, 2007 the Company had cash, cash equivalents and investments of approximately $65.0 million.

The company also announced that Senomyx has initiated the development phase for S2383, a new sweet enhancer. Senomyx has demonstrated in taste tests that the use of S2383 allows us to reduce the sweetener sucralose by approximately 75% while maintaining the desired sweet taste in simple product prototypes. The development phase includes initiation of scale-up activities and safety studies to support regulatory filings. This is the first time Senomyx has commenced activities intended to lead to regulatory filings for a sweet enhancer.

“The magnitude of sweetness enhancement achieved with S2383 is significantly higher than that observed with previous compounds. We feel this is a major scientific accomplishment for Senomyx,” said Kent Snyder, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company.

S2383 is an example of Senomyx’s ability to optimize a sweet enhancer to provide a high degree of enhancement for a particular natural or artificial sweetener. Many consumer products contain sucralose or combinations of sucralose and other artificial sweeteners. By enabling the reduction of sucralose, S2383 may allow Senomyx’s partners and potential new collaborators to improve the taste characteristics of their products and reduce their costs of goods.

“While S2383 is most effective with sucralose, we believe that optimization of other compounds in the same and other classes could result in enhancers of sucrose, fructose, and other natural or artificial sweeteners. In addition to the S2383 sucralose enhancer, our current efforts are focused on enhancement of sucrose and fructose,” Snyder explained. Sucrose, which is plain sugar, and fructose, which is the key sweet ingredient of high-fructose corn syrup, are each used in a wide variety of food and beverage products.

“On the commercialization front, we were extremely pleased to announce in June that Nestlé, the world’s largest food company, has started commercial introduction of the first food products that contain Senomyx’s savory flavor ingredients,” Snyder noted. “It is very rewarding that a company of Nestlé’s reputation and stature is marketing products that include Senomyx ingredients, and we appreciate their commitment and cooperation in bringing the launch to fruition.”

In July, the Company’s savory flavor ingredients received a positive review by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives, which determined that there were no safety concerns with the use of these ingredients in foods. The positive assessment by JECFA is expected to expedite regulatory approvals in a number of countries, particularly those that do not have independent regulatory approval systems.

The JECFA determination supplements the Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) status that Senomyx received previously in the U.S., which allows for commercialization of the Company’s savory flavor ingredients in a significant number of countries and facilitates approval in much of the rest of the world. The JECFA and GRAS assessments enable incorporation of these ingredients into a variety of food products including sauces, frozen foods, soups, and snack foods.

“We have also had important achievements on the business front, with three of our partners, Ajinimoto, Cadbury Schweppes, and Kraft Foods, having expanded or extended their collaborations with us. In addition, at the beginning of the quarter Senomyx gained a seventh market leading partner when we entered into a new collaboration with Solae, the leading supplier of soy protein for food-based products,” Snyder stated. The Company’s new collaboration with Solae LLC, a joint venture of DuPont and Bunge Limited, aims to develop new bitter blockers that better modulate and control bitterness in certain soy-based products.

Senomyx’s collaboration with Ajimomoto Co., Inc. was expanded twice since the last quarter. In April, the agreement was broadened to include the U.S. and Canada in addition to the previously licensed Asian markets. In August, the collaboration was expanded substantially to include additional product categories and numerous new territories in Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Oceania.

In July, Senomyx and Cadbury Adams USA LLC, a Cadbury Schweppes company, extended for an additional year their exclusive collaborative research and license agreement for the discovery and commercialization of new flavor ingredients in the gum confectionary area. Also in July, Senomyx and Kraft Foods Global, Inc. extended their discovery and development collaboration through December 2008 to allow Kraft Foods to continue its evaluation of novel flavor modifiers under development by Senomyx for potential use by Kraft Foods on an exclusive basis in a specified product field in the dessert product category and on a co-exclusive basis in the powdered beverage product field. Senomyx and Kraft Foods are also working together on the discovery and development of novel flavor modifiers in the chilled and processed meat product category.

“Working with such prominent companies is very valuable for Senomyx, and we believe these ongoing and new relationships are testaments to both our proprietary technologies and to the commercial need for the flavor ingredients we are pursuing,” said Snyder.

”In addition to the advances made with the sucralose enhancer, each of Senomyx’s Discovery & Development programs made notable progress during the second quarter of 2007,” Snyder commented. “Of particular importance is our considerable work characterizing the structure and function of proteins involved in taste. This effort has the potential to lead to the identification of ion channels and receptors present in taste buds that may be involved in the perception of salt taste and other taste sensations.”