Synthetech Earns Four Awads For Performance Improvement Program

Tuesday December 18, 11:26 am ET

ALBANY, Ore., Dec. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Synthetech, Inc. (OTC BB: NZYM.OB) has earned four 2007 Silver Performance Improvement Awards for their outstanding accomplishments in environmental, health, safety and security (EHS&S) performance. The Silver Awards are presented by the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association (SOCMA) and sponsored by ChemStewards, SOCMA's EHS&S initiative. The awards are highly regarded and demonstrate Synthetech's level of commitment and progress to the principles of EHS&S that puts them in a class above their peers.

In winning four Silver Awards, Synthetech is receiving more awards than any other facility. "Synthetech should be commended for their work," said Joe Acker, SOCMA president. "Our panel of judges found them to be an impressive example for the rest of the industry. Synthetech shows they are committed to performance excellence and to improving the quality of life in their community. We hope that other companies will see the progress Synthetech has made and will use them as an example for their own programs. We applaud Synthetech and hope they continue these efforts."

"Our commitment to environmental, health, safety, and security is driven by our culture and these SOCMA awards provide visibility for actions which are standard procedure at Synthetech every day," said Synthetech President and COO, Dr. Greg Hahn. "We are especially proud of the on-going hard work by our employees to ensure a safe and secure environment for our facilities and community."

SOCMA, the leading international trade association representing the custom and specialty chemical industry, recognized Synthetech at its Annual Dinner during a special awards ceremony on December 10th in New York City.

As part of the Awards process, Synthetech outlined its efforts to:
-- Reduce waste;
-- Use resources as efficiently as possible;
-- Engage stakeholders and their community continually and effectively;
-- Promote the concept of product stewardship throughout a product's lifecycle. Product stewardship is the responsible management of EHS&S issues such as safe transport, storage, use and disposal.

SOCMA members manufacture thousands of products annually. From pharmaceuticals to cosmetics, soaps to plastics, and all kinds of industrial and construction products, SOCMA members produce the building blocks for materials that save lives, ensure our food supply is safe and abundant, and enable the manufacture of literally thousands of other products. Visit SOCMA's online press room at http://www.socma.com/.

ChemStewards® is SOCMA's flagship environmental, health, safety and security (EHS&S) continuous performance improvement program. ChemStewards was created from industry's commitment to reducing the environmental footprint left by member facilities. Industry created ChemStewards to meet the unique needs of the batch, custom, and specialty chemical industry. As a mandatory requirement for SOCMA members engaged in the manufacturing or handling of synthetic and organic chemicals, ChemStewards is helping participants reach for superior EHS&S performance through the program's Core Principles. To learn more visit http://www.chemstewards.com/.

Synthetech, Inc. is a fine chemicals company specializing in organic synthesis, biocatalysis and chiral technologies. Synthetech develops and manufactures amino acid derivatives, specialty amino acids, peptide fragments, proprietary custom chiral intermediates and specialty resins, primarily for the pharmaceutical industry. Synthetech's products support the development and manufacture of therapeutic peptides and peptidomimetic small molecule drugs at every stage of a customer's clinical development pipeline, and are used in drugs for the treatment of AIDS, cancer, cardiovascular and other diseases.


MORE INFORMATION:
Contact: Deron Neukomm, 541 967-6575
Web site: http://www.synthetech.com/
E-mail: investor@synthetech.com



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