BASF Pharma Creates New Organization Business Will be More International, Independent and Flexible.

Business Editors

LUDWIGSHAFEN, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 19, 2000

BASF  Aktiengesellschaft is making organizational and personnel changes to its pharmaceutical activities to reflect the increasingly international orientation of its strategy. The legal structures of these activities will focus solely on pharmaceuticals. As a result of these measures, BASF's pharma business will be more efficient and operate more independently. Against the background of large and dynamic changes in the international pharmaceutical industry, BASF Pharma can now act faster and with more flexibility.

The following changes will take place during the next six months:

-- BASF Pharma in the future will concentrate on the research,

development and production as well as marketing and sales of

prescription medications. As a result, the pharmaceutical

substances business will be transferred as of June 1, 2000, to

BASF's Fine Chemicals division.

-- As of February 1, 2000, a new global management committee called

the BASF Pharma Executive Board will be installed. It will be

based in London as of July 1, 2000. The Board of Executive

Directors of Knoll AG will no longer have global

responsibilities, and the board will be dissolved. The new BASF

Pharma Executive Board will be led by Dr. Thorlef Spickschen, who

is president of BASF's Pharmaceuticals division. It is planned

that Dr. Spickschen will relinquish his position as chairman of

the Board of Executive Directors of Knoll AG.

Other members of the new BASF Pharma Executive Board are:

-- Dr. Jurg Ambuhl, formerly president of MSD Sharp & Dohme GmbH in

Germany. Dr. Ambuhl will be based in London and assumes

responsibility for the function "Regional Business Europe/

International," which involves BASF Pharma's operational

businesses in Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia.

-- Carter H. Eckert, currently president of Knoll Pharmaceutical in

the United States. Mr. Eckert's current area of responsibility

for North America will be expanded to include Central and South

America as well.

-- Dr. Ulrich Grau, formerly senior vice president of global product

realization at Hoechst Marion Roussel. He will be based in North

America and will assume leadership of BASF Pharma's research and

development activities.

-- Dr. Christoph Schroder, currently president of Knoll in Great

Britain. Dr. Schroder will be based in London and assumes

responsibility for "Corporate Functions," which includes central

marketing functions and global product marketing.

The members of the Board of Executive Directors of Knoll AG - Prof. Dr. Erich Schlick, Dr. Peter Tonne and Dr. Dirk Wuppermann - will support the BASF Pharma Executive Board in implementing the new structure. They will relinquish their Board positions as of June 30, 2000.

"We have been very successful in recent years in further internationalizing the activities of BASF Pharma; however, about 90 percent of our sales now occur in foreign markets. These new measures are the next logical steps in positioning ourselves as a fast and flexible pharma specialist," said Eggert Voscherau, the member of BASF's Board of Executive Directors who is responsible for the company's Health & Nutrition segment.

Dr. Spickschen said: "After five years of above-average sales growth, the BASF Pharma Executive Board has the task of improving the profitability of BASF Pharma toward the benchmarks set by successful companies in our industry. We are all aware that implementing our new structure, which we have already begun, will be a decisive step. At the end, however, we will have a company that can act even more effectively in the pharmaceutical market."

BASF Pharma encompasses the worldwide pharmaceutical activities of BASF and had 1998 sales of Euro 2.3 billion (about $2.4 billion, DM 4.5 billion), an increase of 10 percent over 1997. BASF Pharma has about 13,000 employees.

BASF is a return-focused global company generating long-term growth and profitability from its activities in chemicals, health and nutrition, and energy. The company's product range includes high-value chemicals, plastics, dyestuffs, automobile and industrial coatings, crop protection agents, pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals, crude oil and natural gas. BASF's approach to integration, known in German as "Verbund," is one of the company's particular strengths and provides a unique competitive advantage.

With sales in 1998 of Euro 27.6 billion (about $29 billion, about DM 54 billion) and a workforce of 105,000 employees, BASF is one of the world's top chemical companies.

Your contacts at Knoll AG:

Gunter Storz Tel. [phone] Friederike Kanne Tel. [phone]

Your contact at Knoll Pharmaceutical Company:

Linda Mayer Tel. [phone]