Amgen Elects Nobel Laureate David Baltimore to Board of Directors.

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 30, 1999--

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) today announced that Nobel Prize winner David Baltimore, Ph.D., has been elected to its Board of Directors. Dr. Baltimore, president of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, is considered one of the most influential biologists of his generation.

Dr. Baltimore's accomplishments have come in multiple areas of expertise, as a researcher, educator, administrator, and public advocate for science and engineering. Dr. Baltimore was named recipient of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Medicine along with Caltech alumnus Howard Temin for their work on the mechanism by which cancer-causing RNA viruses are able to establish themselves inside healthy cells. This ground-breaking work has greatly expanded scientists' understanding of the genetic origins of cancer as well as providing the basis for the discovery of the AIDS virus.

One result of Dr. Baltimore's Nobel Prize research was the identification of the enzyme reverse transcriptase. The existence of reverse transcriptase had been hypothesized some years earlier, but the theory was considered far-fetched until June 1970, when Dr. Baltimore and Dr. Temin published back-to-back papers about their independent and simultaneous identification of the enzyme.

"Amgen is extremely fortunate to be in a position to benefit from David Baltimore's extraordinary scientific background and vision," said Chairman and CEO Gordon Binder. "David Baltimore is one of the giants in biomedical research in the 20th century, and we are pleased to have his guidance in leading our Company into the 21st century."

"I am honored to have the opportunity to work with Amgen. Helping to shape the future of the world's largest biotechnology company is an exciting prospect," Dr. Baltimore said.

In the mid-1970s, Dr. Baltimore played an important role in creating a consensus on national science policy regarding recombinant DNA research. He served as founding director of MIT's Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research from 1982 until 1990. An early advocate of federal AIDS research, Baltimore was appointed in 1996 to head the National Institutes of Health AIDS Vaccine Research Committee. He was also a professor at Rockefeller University from 1990 to 1994, and Rockefeller's president in 1990-91.

Dr. Baltimore's other scientific honors include the 1970 Gustave Stern Award in Virology and the 1971 Eli Lilly and Co. Award in Microbiology and Immunology. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1974.

Amgen is a global biotechnology company that discovers, develops, manufactures and markets cost-effective human therapeutics based on advances in cellular and molecular biology.

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