Released on = February 20, 2007, 7:02 am

Press Release Author = Milestones for GENFIT

Industry = Biotech

Press Release Summary = GENFIT (Alternext: ALGFT; ISIN: FR0004163111), a
biopharmaceutical company committed to drug discovery and development in the fields
of cardiovascular, inflammatory and metabolic diseases, has announced the renewal of
its drug discovery strategic alliances with the Sanofi-Aventis and Solvay Groups.


Press Release Body = Lille (France), Cambridge (Massachusetts, USA), on 20th
February 2007 - GENFIT (Alternext: ALGFT; ISIN:FR0004163111), a biopharmaceutical
company committed to drug discovery and
development in the fields of cardiovascular, inflammatory and metabolic diseases,
has announced the renewal of its drug discovery strategic alliances with the
SANOFI-AVENTIS and
SOLVAY Groups.

This agreement renewal results from the high quality and performance of such
alliances with a view to identifying and developing new treatments for
cardiometabolic disease and its different indications.

The renewed alliance with SANOFI-AVENTIS mainly concerns the following:
- A commitment to extend the current alliance for an additional two years (up until
December 2008), thus representing the third renewal of the alliance initially signed
in 1999, when GENFIT
was first established.
- GENFIT has been collaborating with SANOFI-AVENTIS on several projects,
particularly pharmacological characterization and the selection of Sanofi-Aventis'
best drug candidates
to act on an innovative target involved in metabolic and inflammatory mechanisms as
well as the launch of a new programme based on a new target involved in inflammatory
diseases.
- GENFIT has been receiving annual payments in terms of R&D and has reached
milestones in its clinical development.
- GENFIT will collect royalties in case of the sale of such drugs.

Within the scope of this industrial alliance, GENFIT uses all its drug discovery
technologies (genomics, proteomics, pharmacology and screening) as well as the many
tools centred on nuclear receptors such as the SNuRMs (Selective Nuclear Receptor
Modulators) platform. The latter has already enabled new proof of concept to be
established in this field. In this way, several screening tests have been previously
developed and optimised, thus validating the milestones reached.

The alliance with SOLVAY, started in 2002, has also been renewed according to the
following terms:
- The new agreement has been signed for a three-year period, up to December 2009.
- GENFIT will pursue the collaboration on the compounds selected from their previous
collaboration. First-in-class products, those acting on a completely new target, are
currently in preclinical development at SOLVAY. These compounds are expected to
enter Phase I clinical assays in the coming months.
- Furthermore, based on the excellent results recorded since 2002, the agreement
announced at this time also includes a new programme concerning the validation of a
highly innovative,
new target, and selection of additional development candidates.
- GENFIT collects yearly R&D payments and milestones as well as royalties in the
case of sale.

It is important to recall that the initial objective of this industrial
collaboration targets the identification and development of new selective nuclear
receptor modulators playing a key role in the metabolism of lipoproteins and the
formation of atherosclerosis.

GENFIT'S main strengths in this programme lie in its ability to make scientific and
technical competence available in nuclear receptors and its mastery of several
pertinent models of reverse transport of cholesterol and atherosclerosis. Finally,
GENFIT has amplified its assistance by providing innovative molecular strategies,
particularly as a result of its SnuRMS* technological platform and directed
approaches to mutagenesis.

Jean-François Mouney, Chairman & CEO, highlights:
''Despite the different mergers in the pharmaceutical industry, GENFIT has
succeeded, year after year, in extending and renewing its alliances, as well as in
strengthening them. These successes based on the efficiency of our technological
platforms also help to validate the accuracy of our scientific approaches. In less
than seven years, GENFIT has succeeded in bringing, along with SANOFI-AVENTIS and
SOLVAY, four molecules to tests in man. We hope that our common research will lead
to
blockbusters in the field of cardiometabolic disease and related risks, a field in
which existing molecules are still suffering from a lack in terms of the benefits
expected, toxic or adverse
effects.''

* About the SNuRMs platform
Pharmacological research regarding nuclear receptors is quite intense today in the
whole of the pharmaceutical industry and GENFIT is one of the leaders in this field.
The team of Professors
Fruchart and Staels, co-founders of GENFIT, has been one of the first to demonstrate
the essential role of nuclear receptors, particularly PPAR receptors, in the control
of the metabolism of
cholesterol, lipids and glucose.

Since its inception, GENFIT has set up and validated different tools enabling it to
characterize compounds according to their pharmacological activity, expression
profile on certain target
genes and the profile for recruiting co-factors. With strong competence in medicinal
chemistry and molecular modelling, GENFIT identifies and develops a second
generation of drugs that targets nuclear receptors able to modulate, selectively,
gene expression that is indispensable for the proper functioning of the cell: SNuRMs
(Selective Nuclear Receptor Modulators).

With respect to reference molecules, these selective nuclear receptor modulators act
differently according to their location and/or specialization of the cells being
considered. The fundamental element of this approach relies on the controlled
expression of genes in the cells being targeted.
Through this process, GENFIT therefore obtains molecules that are potentially safer
and more effective.


About GENFIT
An emerging biopharmaceutical company, GENFIT studies the deregulation of genes
implicated in the most widespread diseases. GENFIT's teams identify new therapeutic
targets and develop drug candidates. GENFIT's programmes, conducted in partnership
with industrial pharmaceutical companies such as SANOFI-AVENTIS, PIERRE FABRE,
FOURNIER (SOLVAY Group), MERCK AG, SERVIER, KOWA, deal with the most prevalent
metabolic and inflammatory diseases. GENFIT's specific development of drugs focuses
on global cardiovascular risks, attacking several pathologies (atherosclerosis,
diabetes, obesity, etc.) simultaneously, using a single molecule. With facilities in
Lille and Cambridge (USA), the Company was founded by Jean-François MOUNEY, Chairman
& CEO, with the scientific support of Jean-Charles FRUCHART, President. At the end
of 2006, its staff was comprised of 120 employees, including 100 scientists
(www.genfit.com).


Web Site = http://www.genfit.com

Contact Details = Contacts
GENFIT
Jean-François Mouney
Chairman & CEO
+ 33 (0)3 20 16 40 00
Milestones - Press Relations
Bruno Arabian
+ 33 (0)1 70 08 04 13/+ 33 (0)6 87 88 47 26
milestones@milestones-fr.com