SENOMYX ANNOUNCES APPROVAL OF BITTERMYX® BB68 AND SWEETMYX® SR96 FLAVOR INGREDIENTS IN CHINA

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Aug 31, 2016, 08:30 ET

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 31, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Senomyx, Inc. (NASDAQ: SNMX), a leading company using proprietary taste science technologies to discover, develop and commercialize novel flavor ingredients for the food, beverage and flavor industries, announced today that its flavor ingredients Sweetmyx^® SR96 (S9632) and Bittermyx^® BB68 (S6821) have been approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration of the People's Republic of China. Sweetmyx SR96 is used to boost the sweet taste of products allowing food and beverage companies to significantly reduce sugar while maintaining the same taste to create lower calorie offerings. Bittermyx BB68 is used to reduce the bitterness of certain ingredients and can be used to reduce bitter taste associated with hydrolyzed soy and whey proteins, menthol, caffeine, cocoa, and Rebaudioside A (stevia) for use in food, beverage, OTC and oral care products.

"We are excited to announce the approval of these flavor ingredients in China," said John Poyhonen, President and Chief Executive Officer of Senomyx. "China is a very large market opportunity with a population exceeding 1.3 billion people and retail packaged food and beverage sales of approximately $600 billion annually¹," Poyhonen noted. "These approvals also further validate our ability to attain approval by major regulatory bodies throughout the world."

This regulatory approval allows Senomyx to pursue commercialization of these flavor ingredients in China in a wide range of foods and beverages. These ingredients are available to flavor houses through Senomyx's direct sales Complimyx^® line and can also be commercialized by two Senomyx collaborators in certain product categories.

About Senomyx, Inc. (www.senomyx.com)
Senomyx discovers novel flavor ingredients and natural high intensity sweeteners that allow food and beverage companies to create better-for-you products. Under its direct sales program, Senomyx sells its Complimyx^® brand flavor ingredients, Sweetmyx^®, Savorymyx^®, and Bittermyx^®, to flavor companies for use in a wide variety of foods and beverages. In addition, Senomyx has partnerships with leading global food, beverage, and ingredient supply companies, which are currently marketing products that contain Senomyx's flavor ingredients. For more information, please visit www.senomyx.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this communication that are "forward-looking statements" are based on currently available information, operating plans and projections about future events and trends. They inherently involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted in such forward-looking statements. Such forward looking statements include, but are not limited to, the potential to use SR96, the Sweetmyx flavor ingredient, to restore the original taste profile in foods and beverages in which sucrose has been reduced; and BB68, the Bittermyx flavor ingredient, to block the bitterness of certain products, and the anticipated timing of consumer acceptance. Risks associated with those forward-looking statements include the fact that the cost to manufacture and/or formulate the Sweetmyx and Bittermyx ingredients into packaged food and beverage products may be higher than anticipated, which could discourage market acceptance; commercial quantities of the Sweetmyx and Bittermyx ingredients may not be available when currently anticipated; we may encounter unexpected difficulties using the new Sweetmyx and Bittermyx flavor ingredients to manufacture food or beverage products at commercial scale; the launch of any new or reformulated commercial product is subject to inherent uncertainty and potential delay; consumer acceptance testing may take longer than anticipated or may not be successful; Senomyx may be asked to complete additional studies to evaluate and/or monitor the safety of new flavor ingredients in order to maintain applicable regulatory approvals and/or obtain regulatory approvals in other geographies; Senomyx or its collaborators may be unable to obtain and maintain the regulatory approval of these ingredients in China and elsewhere; Senomyx's ability to compete in the flavor ingredients market may decline if Senomyx does not adequately protect its proprietary technologies; and the reference to the estimated potential market opportunity for retail packaged food and beverage sales in China is made by Euromonitor© and does not represent Senomyx's forecast or prediction. These and other risks and uncertainties are described more fully in Senomyx's most recently filed SEC documents, including its most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and Annual Report on Form 10-K under the headings "Risks Related to Our Business" and "Risks Related to Our Industry." All forward-looking statements contained in this press release speak only as of the date on which they were made. Senomyx undertakes no obligation to update such statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made.