Chiron Names Richard Barker President of Chiron Diagnostics.

EMERYVILLE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 17, 1996--Chiron Corporation (NASDAQ:CHIR) today announced that it has named Richard W. Barker, Ph.D., senior vice president and president of Chiron Diagnostics, the company's largest business unit.

Barker will be responsible for the strategic direction and operations of Chiron's overall diagnostic business including Ciba Corning Diagnostics, bDNA probe products for viral quantification and Chiron's joint businesses with Johnson & Johnson in blood screening tests and a home collection HIV testing and counseling service, which together accounted for more than $600 million of Chiron's $1.1 billion in revenues in 1995. He will be based in Walpole, MA.

Chiron Diagnostics is a leading global supplier of critical blood analyte (CBA) systems and high-volume random-access immunodiagnostic systems, and is a pioneer in applying innovative nucleic acid diagnostics for the quantification of virus. Its joint immunodiagnostic business with Ortho Diagnostic Systems, a Johnson & Johnson company, is the world's second-largest supplier of blood screening tests. On May 15, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cleared for marketing the Confide home collection HIV testing and counseling service, the development of which was co-funded by Chiron and its designer and operator, Direct Access Diagnostics, also a Johnson & Johnson company.

"Richard Barker is an outstanding strategic thinker about the future of healthcare delivery and economics, whose skills and expertise complement the existing strong operating management talents already resident in the Chiron Diagnostics business unit," said William J. Rutter, Ph.D., chairman of Chiron.

"Richard shares our belief that the higher level and content of information provided by new tests and sophisticated instrument systems when integrated into the healthcare fabric can improve the quality, cost and effectiveness of medical outcomes," Rutter continued. "He has built sound business relationships at the highest levels of many of our customers, the largest health systems and organizations in the United States, Europe and Asia. The instrument platforms, measurement technologies, disease knowledge and global marketing reach of Chiron Diagnostics position this business to take advantage of the growth opportunities we foresee for the field, and we expect that under Richard's direction, it will challenge for leadership in the industry."

"Chiron's highly regarded bioscience technology base brings unique value to the diagnostics industry," said Barker. "In addition, as healthcare rapidly becomes an information-driven business, the capability of Chiron Diagnostics to bring leading-edge measurement approaches to medicine will enable us to make major contributions to improving the effectiveness and cost of patient care."

Barker joins Chiron from IBM Corporation where he was general manager, Worldwide Healthcare Solutions, a $2-billion worldwide business comprising hardware, software, consulting, services and networking products sold to health plans, managed care organizations, hospitals and government health agencies. Barker joined IBM in 1994 to form the North American Healthcare Solutions business unit. Since then, the North American and global business have experienced strong, profitable growth under his operational leadership. Among the products and services introduced by IBM over this period were:

-- IBM Health Data Network, a regional transaction network established in its first year in six regions across the United States,

-- IBM Healthcare Architectural Blueprint, which details the management processes and solutions architecture required for the integrated health system of the future,

-- Open Healthcare Alliance, a consortium of six healthcare information companies led by IBM, and

-- under development, Health Village, an Internet-based health information service for consumers and physicians.

During his time at IBM, Barker also chaired a Council on Competitiveness Task Force on healthcare information integration that contributed to the recent "highway to health" report recommendations on the national Healthcare Information Infrastructure (HII). He is a member of the Action Team set up by the Koop Institute to advise the federal government on the HII. Before joining IBM, he was with McKinsey & Company in London, New York and Zurich as partner and leader of the firm's European Healthcare Practice.

Barker earned a B.A. degree in chemistry and a Ph.D. in biophysics from Oxford University in England, and had postdoctoral fellowships at Munich University and Leeds University.

Chiron Diagnostics combines biological technologies, chemistry and advanced instrument systems to empower physicians with information to better manage therapies and help patients understand their disease. Chiron Diagnostics has operations in 20 countries, sells its products in more than 90 countries and employs approximately 3,500 people. Its products include the ACS:180 and ACS:180 Plus random-access immunodiagnostic systems, the 200, 600 and 800 Series CBA instrument systems, and nucleic acid systems to quantify viral load using Chiron's proprietary bDNA probe technology. Within the next year, Chiron Diagnostics plans to introduce a new, more rapid and versatile ACS system and a point-of-care CBA system.

The bDNA probes and an expanding menu of tests run on the ACS and CBA systems are the foundation for Therametric tests, a new class of diagnostics. By improving the quality, cost and effectiveness of medical treatments and outcomes for patients, Therametric tests from Chiron Diagnostics can play a leading role in enhancing the importance of diagnostics in disease management.

For example, the use of Chiron's HIV bDNA probe tests to measure viral RNA in AIDS research is helping advance understanding of HIV disease progression. Viral load is now accepted as an important measure of HIV disease prognosis and as a predictor of survival.

Chiron Diagnostics has submitted its application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market its HIV bDNA probe test in the United States and is preparing applications in other markets. Chiron's partner, Daiichi Pure Chemicals Ltd., markets Quantiplex bDNA probe tests for hepatitis C and B in Japan, where the tests are being used to select and monitor therapy of chronic hepatitis patients.

Chiron Corporation is a science-driven healthcare company that combines diagnostic, vaccine and therapeutic strategies for controlling disease. Headquartered in Emeryville, California, with operations on four continents, Chiron had revenues in 1995 of $1.1 billion. 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 in gene therapy, combinatorial chemistry, cancer, infectious and cardiovascular disease, and critical care.

CONTACT: Chiron Corporation

Larry Kurtz, 510/601-2475

Judy Rossi, 508/660-4875