Chiron Announces Vaccine Distribution Agreement.

EMERYVILLE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 11, 1996--Chiron Corporation (NASDAQ: CHIR) announced today that it has reached an agreement with a group of affiliated companies which distribute pharmaceutical and vaccine products for major manufacturers to operate specialized distribution and sales functions for Chiron's vaccine products in the United States.

The group is headed by General Injectables & Vaccines, Inc. (GIV), and also includes InSource, Inc., both based in Bastian, Virginia, and Resolve Medical Marketing, Inc. (formerly Lotus Biochemical Corporation), of Radford, Va. In a separate transaction, Chiron has acquired a significant minority equity position in the privately owned holding company for GIV, InSource and Resolve Medical Marketing.

Chiron is creating a vaccines marketing and sales organization to maximize its product opportunities in the United Sates. Under the terms of the agreement, GIV, InSource and Resolve Medical marketing will provide warehousing, distribution, customer service, billing and related services for Chiron's vaccines business.

GIV and InSource will distribute and actively promote Chiron's vaccine products to physicians, pharmacies, nursing homes, local health departments and other customers. Resolve Medical Marketing will provide advanced medical telecommunications and data services to support marketing of Chiron vaccine products.

"As we near the introduction of our first vaccine products in the U.S. market, this agreement allows us to command a proven, full-scale, state-of-the-art distribution network at launch through a highly cost-effective approach," said Dino Dina, M.D., president of the Chiron vaccines business unit.

"These affiliated companies have developed strong customer relationships and detailed vaccine market information, and employ sophisticated medical telecommunications technology. Adding these capabilities to our own marketing and sales structure will allow us to accelerate market acceptance and penetration for our innovative new vaccines."

"Chiron has one of the broadest and most promising vaccine product pipelines in the industry," said R.J. Kirk, chairman and chief executive officer of the parent company for GIV, InSource and Resolve Medical marketing.

"Although we have performed a variety of marketing and distribution services for a number of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, the agreement with Chiron achieves our goal of establishing a broad-based relationship that will allow us to leverage our systems and platforms across a large number of novel products to create a superior value-building model for suppliers and customers."

"This agreement complements our internal strategy to address needs of the United States market, and our vaccine distribution structure in place in Europe," added Dina. "We are now well-positioned to launch new products in the United States, Italy and Germany, three of the world's largest vaccine markets."

Chiron has a fully integrated vaccine operation based in Siena, Italy, and in June 1996 purchased a 49 percent interest in newly formed Chiron Behring, a vaccines joint venture incorporating the vaccine business of Behringwerke AG of Marburg, Germany.

Chiron is preparing to launch a Chiron Behring rabies vaccine in the United States, and is preparing its regulatory applications to market a combined diptheria/tetanus/genetically engineered acellular pertussis (DTaP) vaccine in the United States and Europe. An adjuvanted flu vaccine has received final recommendation for approval in Italy.

A candidate genital herpes (HSV-2) prophylactic vaccine is in the final stages of Phase 3 clinical trials in the United States. A candidate vaccine for cytomegalovirus is in clinical trials in the United States. Chiron also has vaccines for hepatitis C virus, HIV, h. Pylori, Human papilloma virus, meningococcus C and hepatitis B virus in development.

Biological and Popular Culture, Inc., (Biopop), the parent company for GIV, InSource and Resolve Medical marketing, employs leading-edge telecommunications and data platforms to provide healthcare communications, marketing and operations for technology developers, healthcare providers and consumers.

Through its subsidiaries, biopop performs marketing services on behalf of both vaccines and pharmaceutical products for several of the largest U.S. pharmaceutical companies.

GIV markets and distributes vaccines and pharmaceuticals to physician offices nationally and provides third-party vaccine distribution through contracts with a number of states, including New York, Pennsylvania and California. InSource provides similar services to pharmacies and medical/surgical suppliers. Resolve Medical Marketing provides marketing services for healthcare technology developers, utilizing proprietary medical telecommunications and data platforms.

Chiron Corporation, headquartered in Emeryville, Calif., near San Francisco, is a science-driven healthcare company that combines diagnostic, vaccine and therapeutic strategies for controlling disease.

Chiron participates in four global healthcare markets: diagnostics, including immunodiagnostics, critical care diagnostics and new quantitative probe tests; therapeutics, with an emphasis on oncology and infectious disease; pediatric and adult vaccines; and ophthalmic surgical products for the correction of vision. Chiron also has research programs underway in gene therapy and gene transfer, combinatorial chemistry, cardiovascular disease and critical care.

CONTACT: Chiron Corporation

Larry Kurtz, 510/601-2476

or

Biopop

Nicole LaMarr, 540/633-3546