San Diego, November 6, 2008 – Senomyx, Inc., a leading company focused on using proprietary technologies to discover and develop novel flavor ingredients for the food, beverage, and ingredient supply industries, and Firmenich SA, the world's largest privately-owned fragrance and flavor company, announced today that they have entered into a collaborative commercialization and license agreement for S2383, Senomyx's novel enhancer of the high-intensity sweetener sucralose.
During the collaborative period, Firmenich will be granted exclusive rights on a worldwide basis to commercialize S2383 in virtually all product categories. Upon commercialization, Firmenich has agreed to pay Senomyx royalties on all sales of S2383 when it is sold either on a stand-alone basis or within a flavor system.
“Senomyx is extremely pleased to establish this second collaboration with Firmenich, a global leader in providing food ingredients and flavor systems to major consumer companies for use in their brands,” said Kent Snyder, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company. “After careful consideration, Senomyx determined that working with Firmenich would provide us with the best opportunity to maximize the long term revenue potential of S2383, our new sucralose enhancer. We believe that Firmenich offers key strengths in the areas of product development, proprietary formulation systems, and manufacturing that may allow us to accelerate commercialization of S2383. In addition, we believe their capabilities and existing strong customer relationships may facilitate market acceptance for the use of this new flavor ingredient in beverages, dairy products, baked goods, snack foods, desserts and oral care products. It is noteworthy that Firmenich is well-established in both food and non-food consumer markets, and their broad rights will allow them to reach customers that we would not be able to access alone.”
On November 5, 2008 Senomyx announced receipt of a GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) regulatory designation for S2383. The GRAS status allows S2383 to be commercialized in the U.S. and other countries. Senomyx has confirmed in taste tests that the use of S2383 allows the sucralose in simple product prototypes to be reduced by up to 75% while maintaining the desired sweet taste.
“We are looking forward to gaining access to S2383, the exceptional enhancer of sucralose discovered by Senomyx,” commented Patrick Firmenich, Chief Executive Officer of Firmenich. “S2383 may be appropriate for many of our clients who are searching for unique methods to reduce the cost of sweeteners used in their products. Furthermore, the combined use of this new enhancer and Firmenich’s proprietary delivery systems may produce a taste benefit in certain applications. Our exclusive partnership is designed to allow Firmenich to have a competitive advantage in providing innovative flavor systems to customers, and may expand our product offerings and market coverage.”
In January 2008, Senomyx and Firmenich entered into a collaborative research, development, commercialization and license agreement for novel flavor ingredients intended to provide a cooling taste effect. The goal of this collaboration is to identify novel cooling flavors that do not have the limitations of currently available agents.