News

SENOMYX ANNOUNCES CORPORATE UPDATE AND SECOND QUARTER 2009 FINANCIAL RESULTS

Recent Accomplishments Include:

• New collaboration with Firmenich for the discovery, development, and worldwide commercialization of Senomyx Sweet Enhancers
• Final development activities with S6973, an enhancer of sucrose, are on-track to support regulatory filings in the U.S. and elsewhere
• Continuing development activities to support regulatory filings for Bitter Blockers
• Guidance revised to reduce expected 2009 net cash used in operating activities

SAN DIEGO, CA – August 4, 2009 – Senomyx, Inc. (NASDAQ: SNMX), a company focused on using proprietary taste receptor-based technologies to discover novel flavor ingredients for the food, beverage, and ingredient supply industries, today provided a corporate update and reported financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2009. A key recent accomplishment for the Company was the new collaborative research, development, commercialization and license agreement with Firmenich SA, the world's largest privately-owned fragrance and flavor company, for Senomyx’s novel flavor ingredients intended to enhance the taste of sucrose (table sugar), fructose, and Rebaudioside (stevia). Senomyx will receive an initial license fee from Firmenich as well as an additional license fee that will be payable under specified conditions. Senomyx will also receive research fees, payments upon the achievement of specified milestones, and royalties on all Firmenich sales of Sweet Enhancers developed under the collaboration.

“Senomyx’s new collaboration with Firmenich is an important strategic achievement for the Company,” said Kent Snyder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Senomyx. “Our primary business goal is to maximize the revenue potential of our flavor ingredients. We believe Senomyx’s Sweet Enhancers have a large commercial opportunity that would best be exploited and accelerated by a world-class partner with broad access to both the U.S. and the international marketplace. Firmenich’s capabilities include proprietary formulation systems tailored to their clients’ brands, manufacturing, and a highly-regarded expertise in developing sweet flavor solutions for a variety of products.”

The potential market for Senomyx’s Sweet Enhancers includes a wide variety of products that would benefit from a reduction in the amount of sugar or sweeteners utilized. Reducing the quantities of sucrose and fructose in products could be advantageous for consumers seeking to limit sugars in their diets and for manufacturers that would like to offer products with improved nutritional profiles without compromising on taste. “Our agreement with Firmenich will make the Sweet Enhancers available for use in all packaged food product fields not currently partnered by Senomyx, including private label products and the food service industry,” Snyder noted.

The Senomyx Sweet Enhancers covered under the new collaboration with Firmenich include S6973, a sucrose enhancer that enables up to 50% reduction of sugar in numerous product prototypes while retaining the natural taste, as well as related enhancers of sucrose that have other desirable physical properties. Senomyx is currently pursuing final development activities to support regulatory filings for S6973 in the U.S. and elsewhere.

In addition to the activities regarding the Sweet Enhancers, Senomyx had notable progress in its Bitter Blockers Program during the past quarter. Recent taste tests demonstrated that the Company’s bitter blockers can provide statistically significant reductions in the bitterness of a variety of product prototypes and food ingredients including tea, cocoa, menthol, Rebaudioside-A, and the widely used sweeteners Acesulfame potassium (Ace-K) and saccharine. Regulatory-focused development activities for promising bitter blockers are underway.

“Reducing bitterness would be valuable for the many manufacturers who want to improve the taste characteristics of food, beverage, healthcare, and other products,” Snyder stated. “We are encouraged by the data from our recent taste tests and the possibility of addressing the needs of potential new collaborators.”

Senomyx is also continuing to increase the number of granted patents in its intellectual property portfolio of proprietary taste receptor technologies. As of June 30, 2009, Senomyx is the owner or exclusive licensee of 173 issued patents and 391 pending patent applications in the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere.

Program Updates:

• Savory Enhancer Program: The primary applications of the Company’s savory flavor ingredients are to reduce or replace monosodium glutamate (MSG) and to enhance the savory taste of foods by combining Senomyx’s savory flavors with other ingredients to create unique new flavors. Nestlé is currently marketing a small number of new bouillon and culinary aid food products that contain Senomyx’s savory flavor ingredients in the Pacific Rim and Latin America. In addition, Nestlé has been conducting product development and consumer testing with both new and reformulated established products in larger countries that are high-volume users of MSG. Senomyx anticipates that Nestlé will initiate commercialization of established products containing the savory flavor ingredients later this year.



• Sweet Enhancer Program: The primary goal for this program is to identify flavor ingredients that allow a significant reduction of sweeteners in food and beverage products while maintaining the desired sweet taste. Senomyx discovered and developed S2383, a novel enhancer of the high-intensity sweetener sucralose that enables up to a 75% reduction of sucralose in product prototypes without compromising the sweet intensity or producing off-tastes. Use of S2383 may also result in an improved taste compared to sucralose alone when incorporated into a flavor system. Senomyx and Firmenich entered into a collaboration in November 2008 under which Firmenich has exclusive rights to commercialize S2383 on a worldwide basis in virtually all product categories. S2383 has been granted a GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) regulatory designation that allows commercialization in the U.S. and other countries. Firmenich is moving forward with pre-commercialization activities.
  
  Senomyx is on-track with development activities to support regulatory filings for S6973, a sucrose enhancer that enabled a significant reduction of sugar in taste tests with numerous product prototypes while maintaining the full sweet taste with no off-tastes. Key safety studies have been completed and the data are being compiled for inclusion in the filings. In addition, Senomyx is continuing evaluation of a number of related sucrose enhancers with other attributes that may be advantageous for a variety of products.
  
  Activities are ongoing to identify enhancers of fructose, a key sugar component of high fructose corn syrup. Senomyx scientists have discovered potential fructose enhancers that demonstrated activity in the Company’s proprietary sweet receptor screening assays. Recent efforts include the screening of an additional 50,000 new samples added to Senomyx’s corporate library and further evaluation of the most promising potential enhancers.
  
  Senomyx has also initiated activities to discover enhancers of Rebaudioside-A (also known as Reb-A or rebiana), a natural sugar derived from the stevia plant that is often associated with off-tastes and a lingering aftertaste. A Reb-A enhancer could potentially allow the usage of lower quantities of Reb-A, maintaining the desired sweetness while reducing unwanted tastes.



• Bitter Blocker Program: The primary goals of this program are to reduce or block bitter taste and to improve the overall taste characteristics of foods, beverages, and ingredients. Senomyx is continuing development activities, including scale-up manufacturing and safety studies, intended to support regulatory filings for certain bitter blockers.
  
  Senomyx is also working with Solae on the discovery and development of bitter blockers that modulate and control bitterness in certain soy-based products. Senomyx bitter blockers have demonstrated a taste proof-of-concept with several representative soy samples from Solae, as well as soy-based product prototypes. Optimization of the bitter blockers and additional taste tests are ongoing.



• Salt Enhancer Program: The goal of the Salt Enhancer Program is to identify flavor ingredients that allow a significant reduction of sodium in foods and beverages yet maintain the salty taste desirable to consumers. Senomyx has identified more than 250 enhancers of sodium chloride (table salt) that are active in the proprietary screening assays based on SNMX-29, the protein Senomyx believes is the primary receptor responsible for human salt taste perception. These enhancers represent 12 diverse sample classes and therefore may provide numerous opportunities for the discovery of a new flavor ingredient that enables a reduction in the use of salt. The enhancers are being optimized and evaluated in taste tests.



• Cool Flavor Program: The goal of the Cool Flavor Program is to identify novel cooling flavors that do not have the limitations of currently available agents. Senomyx has discovered cool flavor enhancers that provided a taste proof-of-concept. Additional samples are being screened in the Company’s proprietary high-throughput assay designed to identify potential new cooling agents. Samples that are active in the assay will be evaluated in taste tests to determine their cooling taste effect.

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