Bayer Innovation announces licensing agreement with greenovation Biotech

Thursday - June 22, 2006, Düsseldorf/Freiburg – Bayer Innovation GmbH and greenovation Biotech GmbH have concluded a licensing and service agreement in the field of protein glycosylation in plants. This was announced by the companies today. The terms of the agreement will not be disclosed.

In this context, glycosylation is a process by which certain sugar molecules are added to proteins in plants. Understanding and controlling this process in plants can enable researchers to enhance considerably the activity or bioavailability of new proteins produced by plants which can be used for therapeutic purposes.

“Collaboration with greenovation will give us access to innovative glycosylation technology. This will complement our own skills and technologies and has particular applicability to our work on plant-made pharmaceuticals,” explained Gerd Seidl, Global Project Leader for this field at Bayer Innovation GmbH.

“We are extremely pleased to be partnering Bayer Innovation GmbH, who will be putting our technology into practice in plant-made pharmaceuticals,” commented Hans Bodo Hartmann, CEO of greenovation Biotech GmbH.

About Bayer Innovation GmbH:
Bayer Innovation GmbH (BIG), headquartered in Düsseldorf, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bayer. BIG evaluates and develops new fields of business for the Bayer Group that are related to Bayer’s core competencies of health care, nutrition and innovative materials and complement its current key areas of innovation and business.

Additional information on the company can be found on the Internet at: www.bayer-innovation.com

About greenovation Biotech GmbH:
greenovation Biotech GmbH has developed innovative technologies for the production of proteins from moss cells. The “moss bioreactor” is a safe and cost-effective production platform for biopharmaceuticals with special characteristics for improved activity of therapeutic proteins such as antibodies.

Specific genetic modifications render the sugar structures of the proteins obtained similar to human sugar structures. This technology opens up a broader range of therapeutic applications for the proteins obtained from plant cells and is the only technology of its kind available to date for plant-based production systems.

greenovation Biotech GmbH was established in September 1999 and is based in Freiburg, Germany. Its venture capital investors are Mediport Venture Fonds II in Berlin and the Seed Group in Tübingen.
Additional information on the company can be found on the Internet at: www.greenovation.com

Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer Group management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in our public reports file with the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – including our Form 20-F. The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.

Contact Information

Oliver Günther

Press Contact

Bayer Innovation GmbH

Contact via E-mail