Sirtris Pharmaceuticals Sublicenses Portion of Lifespan Technology in Plants to Bayer CropScience AG

  
    
  
  
    
      Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRT) today announces a license 
      agreement with Bayer CropScience AG, headquartered in Monheim, Germany 
      that grants exclusive, worldwide rights in the field of plants to a 
      certain Sirtris technology that contributes to cellular life span 
      extension and stress resistance. In return, Sirtris will receive an 
      initial up-front and future success bound milestone payments. Further 
      financial terms were not disclosed.
    
    
      Crop damage from drought, lack of nutrients and other environmental 
      stresses is of growing worldwide concern. The licensed technology 
      provides possible new approaches to improving agricultural productivity.
    
    
      “Sirtris has and continues to build a strong 
      intellectual property estate around the cellular pathways and distinct 
      molecules associated with longevity and diseases of aging,” 
      said Karl Normington, PhD, Senior Director of Intellectual Property. “Sublicensing 
      portions of our technology to areas that are outside our principle lines 
      of focus, such as agricultural productivity, extend the applications of 
      our technology.”
    
    
      “We are pleased to be working with Bayer 
      CropScience,” said Sirtris Pharmaceuticals 
      Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chair Christoph Westphal, MD, PhD. “Because 
      of their focus on improving agricultural productivity, they are 
      well-positioned to leverage this important technology for crop yield 
      stability.”
    
    
      Michiel van Lookeren Campagne, PhD, Head of BioScience Research for 
      Bayer CropScience welcomes the partnership with Sirtris Pharmaceuticals. “Global 
      population growth and climate change have put huge pressure on 
      increasing agricultural productivity under sub-optimal growing 
      conditions. The integration of Sirtris’ 
      proprietary technology into our seeds and traits R&D pipeline will 
      complement our activities in obtaining higher yielding crops - 
      especially under difficult climatic conditions.”
    
    
      About Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
    
    
      Sirtris Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company focused on 
      discovering and developing proprietary, orally available, small molecule 
      drugs with the potential to treat diseases associated with aging, 
      including metabolic diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes. Our drug 
      candidates are designed to mimic certain beneficial health effects of 
      calorie restriction, without requiring a change in eating habits, by 
      activation of sirtuins, a recently discovered class of enzymes that the 
      Company believes control the aging process. The company's headquarters 
      are in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This and further information is 
      available at: www.sirtrispharma.com
    
    
      Forward Looking Statement
    
    
      This press release contains forward-looking statements within the 
      meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such 
      statements include, but are not limited to, the potential therapeutic 
      effects of SIRT1 activators; the progress and results of pre-clinical 
      and clinical studies of SIRT1 activators; the potential of Sirtris' 
      technology to improve agricultural productivity; the strength of the 
      Company's intellectual property estate; and the potential of sirtuin 
      modulators to receive regulatory approval. These forward-looking 
      statements about future expectations, plans and prospects of Sirtris 
      Pharmaceuticals involve significant risks, uncertainties and 
      assumptions, including risks related to the lack of results that would 
      provide a basis for predicting whether any of the Company's product 
      candidates will be safe or effective, or receive regulatory approval, 
      the possibility that results of pre-clinical studies are not necessarily 
      predictive of clinical trial results, the Company's potential inability 
      to initiate and complete pre-clinical studies and clinical trials for 
      its product candidates, the fact that none of the Company's product 
      candidates has received regulatory approvals, the potential inability of 
      the Company to gain market acceptance of the Company's product 
      candidates, and those other risks factors that can be found in the 
      Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual 
      results may differ materially from those Sirtris Pharmaceuticals 
      contemplated by these forward-looking statements. Sirtris 
      Pharmaceuticals does not undertake to update any of these 
      forward-looking statements to reflect a change in its views or events or 
      circumstances that occur after the date of this release.