Pivotal Evolva Stevia Sweetener Patent Receives US Notice of Allowance

Evolva (SIX:EVE) announces that it has received a Notice of Allowance for a pivotal patent application (US 2013/0171328) from the US Patent & Trademark Office covering the most commercially viable production method for manufacturing the best-tasting steviol glycosides. This grant is expected to occur early 2017.

Of particular commercial importance, this patent protects key steps in the production of rebaudioside A (Reb A), rebaudioside D (Reb D), and rebaudioside M (Reb M) by a number of production methods including fermentation, bioconversion or other approaches. Evolva was the first company to identify and characterise the enzymes for key steps in the Reb A, Reb D and Reb M biosynthesis pathways.

Including this most recent patent, Evolva now has 6 granted and 69 pending applications around the world (including 10 in the US and 5 in Europe) related to production of steviol glycosides by various methods including fermentation, bioconversion or in plants. In May, Evolva was granted a European patent (EP2742142) that enables organisms to express highly attractive pathways for producing steviol glycosides.

Evolva and Cargill have an exclusive collaboration on the production and commercialisation of stevia sweeteners by fermentation, and are co-developing the next-generation stevia sweetener, EverSweet^TM, which is a combination of Reb D and Reb M.

Evolva will be providing a more general update on the status of its stevia program and collaboration in the first half of January 2017.

About Evolva

Evolva solves the supply chain issues of nature through a 21^st century mix of biotechnology and brewing. We develop, make and sell natural ingredients that provide significant benefits to people in daily life, but whose supply chain issues have limited their use until now. Our flagship ingredients are stevia, nootkatone and resveratrol, but we work on many more, both on our own behalf and with others. To make our world sustainable requires nature and technology to work together as one, and our aim is to play a (small) part in achieving this transformation. We operate internationally. For more information see www.evolva.com. Questions about our approach? Have a look at our video.

This press release contains specific forward-looking statements, e.g. statements including terms like believe, assume, expect or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may result in a substantial divergence between the actual results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and those explicitly or implicitly presumed in these statements. Against the background of these uncertainties readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The company assumes no responsibility to update forward-looking statements or to adapt them to future events or developments.

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