Phoenix, Arizona
July 17, 2002

Seaphire International, a privately-held agricultural biotechnology company focused on improving the efficiency and environmental suitability of plants, today announced the acquisition of an exclusive worldwide license to technology that has successfully created salt tolerant plants.

The technology was licensed from the University of Toronto Innovations Foundation and was invented by a team at the University of Toronto under the leadership of Professor Eduardo Blumwald, PhD.

"Salt tolerance technology is one of the cornerstones of our strategy to develop environmentally sustainable plant varieties," says Roy Hodges, president and CEO of Seaphire. "The results achieved by Dr. Blumwald's team are remarkable. We have established an aggressive program to develop and commercialize this technology."

Salinity is one of the most significant problems facing world agriculture. Salinization of agricultural land is primarily the result of irrigation, as water evaporates and leaves behind salt residue in the soil. It is estimated that worldwide nearly 200 million acres of agricultural land -- more than the area of Texas -- are impacted by salinity, and nearly 12 million acres are added annually to this total. In addition to farmland that has been forced out of production, more than 750 million acres of other salinity impacted land in the world could be brought into agricultural production if salinity tolerant plants were available.

Dr. Blumwald's research team has developed tomato and canola plants that grow and produce normal fruit and seed yields when irrigated with water that is 33% the salinity level of seawater. Most agricultural crops fail to achieve economic yields when salinity exceeds about 8% of seawater. The research has been described in several scientific publications, including Science, Nature Biotechnology, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. The resulting proprietary technology, which is now licensed exclusively to Seaphire, is based on the introduction of a natural plant gene that neutralizes the impact of salt.

Dr. George Adams, President of The University of Toronto Innovations Foundation, the technology-licensing unit of the University of Toronto, said "With its resources and focus, Seaphire is the ideal company to further develop and commercialize this technology. We believe that salinity in agriculture is a global issue that this technology will effectively address."

Seaphire International, based in Phoenix, Arizona, is an agricultural biotechnology company that develops and commercializes sustainable technologies for agriculture and aquaculture that improve the human condition and provide environmental and economic efficiencies. Seaphire is a wholly owned subsidiary of Exeter Life Sciences, Inc., a multidisciplinary company with operating units addressing market opportunities in human, animal, and plant health.

The University of Toronto Innovations Foundation's goal is to maximize the impact of the more than $2 million expended every day on research at Canada's leading university and its affiliate institutions. Innovations Foundation was founded in 1980 to help researchers capitalize on unique opportunities in a variety of technologies. Innovations Foundation is staffed by over 20 professionals with a wide variety of technology and business experiences, and is a leader in the field of technology commercialization.