Chiron's William Rutter Honored by Industry CEOs for Contributions to Biotechnology Industry.

EMERYVILLE, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--Oct. 13, 1998--Chiron Corp. (Nasdaq:CHIR), today announced that Dr. William J. Rutter, co-founder and chairman of the board, has been honored with the Biotechnology Hall of Fame special recognition award for his lifelong contributions to the inception and development of the biotechnology industry.

This award was presented at the eleventh annual Biotechnology CEO Conference, sponsored by Burrill & Company and Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers.

Held annually, the biotechnology meeting is the premier industry conference exclusively for chief executive officers. As part of this year's event, attending CEOs vote to recognize an individual peer for his/her accumulative contribution and impact on the success of the biotechnology industry.

Last year the organization presented the first Hall of Fame special recognition award to five individuals: Fred Frank of Lehman Brothers; George Rathmann of Amgen Inc., ICOS Corp., and BIO; Bob Swanson of Genentech Inc., Henri Termeer of Genzyme Corp., and Alejandro Zaffroni of Alza. This is the first award recognizing the contribution of a single individual to the field of biotechnology.

Rutter is being honored for his seminal leadership in science and the integral role he played as co-founder and chairmen of Chiron Corp. "Dr. Rutter is one of the greatest leaders of our time in the world of biotechnology," said G. Steven Burrill, chief executive officer of Burrill & Company and co-host of the conference.

"He is one of the few scientists who have contributed both academically through his laboratory at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) and commercially through his key role in building one of the most successful biotechnology companies in this industry."

Key Accomplishments at Chiron

Rutter has served as chairman of Chiron Corp. since co-founding the biotechnology company with Dr. Edward Penhoet and Dr. Pablo Valenzuela in 1981.

Rutter, Penhoet and Valenzuela shared the vision that DNA-based technology could transform the practice of medicine by producing human therapeutic proteins such as insulin, cytokines and lymphokines (which were the major focus of the biotechnology industry).

They also saw that the technology could be applied to the prevention of disease by creating a new generation of unconditionally safe vaccines based on genetically engineered mimics of infectious agents, and in addition, the development of proprietary diagnostic tests to quantitatively detect and monitor infectious agents, particularly viruses.

This tripartite disease control strategy anticipated different commercial outcomes from a given research program, and is the premise of research and development programs in the company today. It justified the funding for the search for the infectious agent(s) responsible for AIDS and for hepatitis non-A, non-B.

This led to the first sequencing of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the eventual cloning of Hepatitis C by the company in 1989 and the development of diagnostic tests used around the world. These discoveries may lead to new therapeutics and eventually vaccines for HCV and HIV.

In addition, this strategic approach also led to the development of significant companies in therapeutics, vaccines, and diagnostics, based largely on Chiron proprietary technology.

Prior to Chiron, Rutter served as the Chairman of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UCSF. Rutter is also a member of the Board of Directors of Novartis AG, a Swiss life-sciences company, and has served on the Board of Overseers of Harvard University and the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

In addition, Rutter is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the National Academy of Sciences where he is currently on the Council. In 1995, Rutter won the Heinz award for technology.

Headquartered in Emeryville, Chiron is a leading biotechnology company that participates in three global healthcare markets: therapeutics, vaccines and blood testing. Chiron also conducts research and development in the fields of recombinant technology, gene therapy, vaccines, small molecule discovery, and genomics.