Agriculture

Our integrated discovery platform has broad utility in the development of novel therapies for human health and innovative agricultural products. With a core focus on developing therapeutic products for diseases with significant unmet medical need, we are leveraging partnerships with leading agriculture companies to create additional commercial opportunities in the areas of crop protection and plant biotechnology. Exelixis Plant Sciences, located in Portland, Oregon, has been a leader in utilizing "plants as factories" to produce high value compounds that are naturally produced in plants, including natural flavors and colorants for the packaged foods and cosmetics industries. In addition there are opportunities to utilize the plant's biological machinery to produce pharmaceuticals more simply and economically than traditional production methods for synthetically and biologically produced drugs.

In the area of crop protection, we are leveraging our expertise in target identification, high-throughput screening and chemistry to work with corporate partners on the discovery of more specifically targeted chemical products including herbicides, insecticides and nematicides. In the area of plant biotechnology, we are working with corporate partners to develop crops with superior yield and improved nutritional profiles in oil content and protein composition, and to develop plants with high levels of valuable biochemical compounds.

The large markets and global need for safer and more effective agricultural products, combined with our expertise in higher plant systems, make the agriculture programs at Exelixis Plant Sciences an important complement to our pharmaceutical business. By partnering with leading agricultural companies, we can generate near-term revenues with products that have a shorter development cycle than pharmaceuticals, diversify our business risks and offset the cost of proprietary programs.