Evolva Holding S.A.. (3/11/10). "Press Release: Evolva Participates in Food Ingredient Research Initiative". Reinach.

	Region	Denmark
	Organisation	Evolva A/S
	Group	Evolva (Group)
	Organisation 2	Danisco A/S
	Group	DuPont (Group)
	Product	industrial biotechnology
	Product 2	vanillin
	Person	Goldsmith, Neil (Evolva 200910 CEO)
	Person 2	Hansen, Jakob D. (Evolva 200910 CFO)

Evolva Holding SA (SIX: EVE) today announced that its Danish subsidiary has commenced a research initiative focusing on novel ways to produce vanillin and arabinogalactan proteins. Together with Evolva, the initiative includes four leading Danish research groups from the University of Copenhagen and the Danish Technical University, Danisco, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a major US research institution.

The purpose of the project is to establish microbial cell factories for production of these ingredients by fermentation. Evolva aims to find approaches for a commercially viable and environmentally acceptable production of vanillin as part of the application of its technologies to "white" biotechnology (the application of biotechnology for industrial purposes).

The research initiative is supported by a grant from the Danish Council for Strategic Research. Evolva's share of the total research grant will amount to approximately CHF 0.7 million. The program is expected to run for four years.

Neil Goldsmith, CEO & Managing Director of Evolva, said "Through our Danish operation's participation in this research initiative we aim to further demonstrate the versatility of our technology platform, which has applications in many business sectors. We are pleased to be part of this distinguished group of collaborators and are confident we will make a significant contribution to this project. The biosynthetic pathways leading to vanillin also have important pharmaceutical potential, and hence the project has dual-use relevance for Evolva."

About Evolva Holding SA

Evolva's proprietary discovery technology platform uses a disruptive technological approach to the creation of novel small compounds that differs sharply from the prevailing synthetic chemistry and protein engineering approaches in the pharmaceutical industry today. Based on this technology, Evolva has a number of discovery and pre-clinical partnerships which in 2008 generated revenues of about CHF 12 million. Evolva also has an attractive pipeline of compounds - one compound (for renal and cardiovascular diseases) is in Phase I and two others (an anti-fungal and an anti-viral) are in late preclinic. Evolva is listed on the Main Standard of the SIX Swiss Exchange with the ticker EVE. For more information see www.evolva.com.

Relevant Background Information

Vanillin is an important flavor compound with annual sales around 16,000 tonnes. Of the total, only about 0.25% is natural vanillin, originating from the seed pods of Vanilla orchids. The remainder is currently synthesised chemically from lignin or fossil hydrocarbons. The best known arabinogalactan protein is gum Arabic which is used in the food industry for its unique properties as an emulgator and its health promoting effects. One of the organisms to be studied in this project is Saccharomyces cerevisiae (baker's yeast). This is a very attractive production organism in white biotechnology, because it is well-characterised, widely used, and has GRAS ("Generally Regarded As Safe") status. Evolva has extensive knowledge on this organism.

Contact Details

Neil Goldsmith, CEO
neilg@evolva.com
+ 41 61 485 2005

Jakob Dynnes Hansen, CFO
jakobdh@evolva.com
+ 41 61 485 2034

Paul Verbraeken, IR
paulv@evolva.com
+ 41 61 485 2035

This press release contains specific forward-looking statements, e.g. statements including terms like believe, assume, expect or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may result in a substantial divergence between the actual results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and those explicitly or implicitly presumed in these statements. Against the background of these uncertainties readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The company assumes no responsibility to update forward-looking statements or to adapt them to future events or developments.

Record changed: 2011-11-25

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Evolva Holding S.A.. (3/11/10). "Press Release: Evolva Participates in Food Ingredient Research Initiative". Reinach.

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