Indianapolis, Indiana
August 8, 2002

Today the Supreme Court of California ruled that Mycogen Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company, was not entitled to pursue a lawsuit for monetary damages resulting from Monsanto Company's breach of an agreement involving Monsanto's agricultural biotechnology products, including insect-resistant corn and herbicide tolerant corn, cotton and canola.

In March of 1998, a jury in San Diego found that Monsanto had breached an option agreement which required Monsanto to grant licenses to Mycogen for Monsanto's Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) corn and Roundup Ready(R) (glyphosate tolerant) corn, cotton and canola. As a result, the jury awarded damages of $174.9 million to Mycogen.

Prior to filing its action for monetary damages, Mycogen won a separate lawsuit against Monsanto, which sought a determination that Mycogen was entitled to licenses to the Monsanto technology at issue. Because Mycogen was successful in that action, Monsanto argued that Mycogen was prevented from pursuing its second action for monetary compensation. The California Court of Appeal sided with Monsanto on that issue and reversed the jury's verdict. Today's ruling by the Supreme Court upholds the Court of Appeal's ruling, and limits Mycogen's recovery to the execution of the licenses in question.

"We are disappointed that the Supreme Court failed to acknowledge Mycogen's right to pursue compensation for its lost profits, in addition to the licenses to Monsanto's technology," stated Pete Siggelko, vice president of Mycogen Corporation and global leader for Plant Genetics and Biotechnology for Dow AgroSciences LLC, Mycogen's affiliated company.

"Nonetheless, this ruling does not affect the outcome of our first successful lawsuit against Monsanto, which established our right to license this important technology. As a result, these products will now form an important part of Mycogen's total product portfolio, and we look forward to our ability to offer this technology to our customers, side-by-side with Mycogen's own proprietary products. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court's ruling prevents us from also collecting the damages caused by the  delay in our acquisition of the technology -- nearly $175 million."

Mycogen Seeds is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company and is an affiliate of Dow AgroSciences LLC. Mycogen Seeds is the leader in Silage-Specific(TM) corn, the largest U.S. sunflower seed producer, and a leading producer of seed corn, alfalfa, soybeans and sorghum. 

Dow AgroSciences LLC, based in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, is a global leader in providing pest management and biotechnology products that improve the quality and quantity of the earth's food supply and contribute to the safety, health and quality of life of the world's growing population. Dow AgroSciences has approximately 6,000 people in over 50 countries dedicated to its business, and has worldwide sales of more than US $3 billion. Dow AgroSciences is a wholly owned indirect subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company.

ROUNDUP READY is a registered trademark of Monsanto Company.