Chiron Corporation
Encyclopedia
Chiron Corporation was a multinational
biotechnology
firm based in Emeryville, California
that was acquired by Novartis International AG
on April 20, 2006. It had offices and facilities in eighteen countries on five continents. Chiron's business and research was in three main areas: biopharmaceutical
s, vaccine
s and blood test
ing. Chiron's vaccines and blood testing units have been combined to form Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, while Chiron BioPharmaceuticals will be integrated into Novartis
Pharmaceuticals.
from Greek mythology
) was founded in 1981 by chairman, William J. Rutter
, president and chief executive, Professor Edward Penhoet, and vice president for research, Pablo DT Valenzuela
. All were academics from the University of California
; Penhoet at Berkeley
, where he continued to lecture, and the others from San Francisco
.
Chiron formed a partnership with the Swiss pharmaceutical giant, Ciba-Geigy Ltd., through the Biocine Company, to use genetic engineering to develop vaccines and to treat, prevent and diagnose diseases such as AIDS, herpes and malaria. Other partnerships included Thicon Inc. to develop a growth factor hormone for the treatment of wounds and Merck & Co to develop an improvement to their existing hepatitis B vaccine.
In 1986, Professor Penhoet said: "Our business strategy is to dominate small markets rather than take a small presence in a broad market." The niche that Chiron was focusing on was ophthalmology, which Mr. Penhoet said was "big enough to be interesting, but small enough to service with 40 salespeople." Professor Penhoet also stated that Chiron was set up to provide the enabling technology for others to use under license, and later saying that Chiron was "as close to a virtual corporation as you can be", with few fixed assets but more relationships.
, to take over as president and CEO. This led to additional buying that included the acquisition of Du Pont in partnership with Ortho Diagnostic Systems; Munich based Adatomed G.m.b.H.; and a merger with fellow biotech company Cetus Corporation after Cetus failed to get approval for its drug Interleukin-2. Hollings Renton of Cetus became president and CEO when Gregory Lawless agreed to leave. Mr Renton resigned in 1992 and was replaced by Sean Lance, from Glaxo Wellcome in 1998, and finally by Howard Pien from GlaxoSmithKlein in 2003.
After the acquisition of Cetus, Chiron split its operations among five entities: Cetus Oncology, for cancer drugs; the Biocine Company, for vaccines; Chiron Diagnostics, for blood screening and other diagnostic tests (later sold to Bayer AG for $2.1 billion); Chiron Intraoptics, for eye surgery, and Chiron Technologies, for research and development.
melanoma
; previously it was only approved for use with kidney cancer
. This was followed a year later by Betaseron, a beta interferon, the first treatment for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis
and made by Berlex Laboratories
Inc.
In 1997 Chiron provided the active ingredient, becaplermin
, in Regranex, a topical treatment for diabetic
foot ulcers, manufactured by Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical
Inc. In 2001, Chiron acquired PathoGenesis for its antibiotic
drug Tobi, the first inhaled antibiotic approved for treating lung infections in cystic fibrosis
patients.
Having launched its first vaccine product, Fluad, an adjuvant influenza vaccine, in 1996, the vaccine line was expanded significantly in 1998 with the acquisition of the European vaccine businesses of Behring (Germany) and Sclavo (Italy). This was followed in 2003 by the acquisition of PowderJect, the UK-based vaccines company, making Chiron the second-largest flu vaccines provider and the fifth-largest vaccines business in the world.
In 1998, Chiron's nucleic acid test
ing (NAT) blood-testing business was launched in cooperation with Gen-Probe, followed a year later by the launch of the Procleix system, which detects viral RNA and DNA in donated blood and plasma during the very early stages of infection, when those infectious agents are present but cannot be detected by immunodiagnostic tests.
Chiron expanded its cancer drug portfolio in 2002 with the acquisition of Matrix Pharmaceuticals Inc and its product tezacitebine.
Chiron also manufactured the MMR
vaccine (measles mumps and rubella) at its Liverpool
plant.
Company over the rights to the polymerase
chain reaction product, which was settled in 1993.
In 1998, Chiron filed patent infringement
suits in Europe, Japan and the US against Roche over its hepatitis C
(HCV) products. Chiron was the first to clone
HCV in 1987 after five years of research and had since filed over 100 HCV related patents in over 20 countries. A settlement was reached where Roche Holding A.G. agreed to buy the global semi-exclusive nucleic acid test (NAT) patents for HCV and HIV from Chiron.
Bayer, the company which bought, Chiron Diagnostics sued Chiron Corporation in 2002 citing that it hid patent and equipment problems from them during purchase negotiations. The case filed in Delaware
alleged breach of warranty, fraud, negligent misrepresentation, violation of the duty of good faith and fair dealing and breach of contract claims in connection with the acquisition.
In 2004, Chiron attracted adverse media coverage after the UK government suspended its license for manufacturing Fluvirin, an influenza vaccine, at its plant in Liverpool, England. This action left the United States government short of the vaccine. It later emerged that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) may have been aware of the problem nine months earlier, but a miscommunication between the company and the FDA left the problem unsolved until the MHRA
(Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency), the British equivalent of the FDA stepped in and suspended Chiron's license. The company undertook a remediation program and succeeded in restoring the manufacturing license from MHRA in 2005. However, the incident resulted in a class action
lawsuit for nearly $280m being brought against Chiron and its executive for allegedly, in 2003, overstating its ability to manufacture and ship the vaccine Fluvirin, thus allowing Novartis to buy Chiron shares below market value when the plant temporarily closed down. The amount settled in 2008 was for $30m.
company Huntingdon Life Sciences
.
Corporation was the result of a merger between Sandoz Laboratories and Ciba-Geigy in 1994 and owned slightly less than half of Chiron as part of a Federal Trade Commission order. Several of Sandoz’s subsidiaries were sold off for reasons of anti monopoly legislation.
In 2005, Novartis made an offer to buy Chiron. Initially this offer was rebuffed, but after the bid was substantially enhanced, Chiron was sold, and became part of Novartis in April, 2006.
Multinational corporation
A multi national corporation or enterprise , is a corporation or an enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country. It can also be referred to as an international corporation...
biotechnology
Biotechnology
Biotechnology is a field of applied biology that involves the use of living organisms and bioprocesses in engineering, technology, medicine and other fields requiring bioproducts. Biotechnology also utilizes these products for manufacturing purpose...
firm based in Emeryville, California
Emeryville, California
Emeryville is a small city located in Alameda County, California, in the United States. It is located in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, extending to the shore of San Francisco Bay. Its proximity to San Francisco, the Bay Bridge, the University of California, Berkeley, and...
that was acquired by Novartis International AG
Novartis
Novartis International AG is a multinational pharmaceutical company based in Basel, Switzerland, ranking number three in sales among the world-wide industry...
on April 20, 2006. It had offices and facilities in eighteen countries on five continents. Chiron's business and research was in three main areas: biopharmaceutical
Biopharmaceutical
Biopharmaceuticals are medical drugs produced using biotechnology. They include proteins , nucleic acids and living microorganisms like virus and bacteria where the virulence of viruses and bacteria is reduced by the process of attenuation, they can be used for therapeutic or in vivo diagnostic...
s, vaccine
Vaccine
A vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe or its toxins...
s and blood test
Blood test
A blood test is a laboratory analysis performed on a blood sample that is usually extracted from a vein in the arm using a needle, or via fingerprick....
ing. Chiron's vaccines and blood testing units have been combined to form Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, while Chiron BioPharmaceuticals will be integrated into Novartis
Novartis
Novartis International AG is a multinational pharmaceutical company based in Basel, Switzerland, ranking number three in sales among the world-wide industry...
Pharmaceuticals.
Early history
Chiron ' onMouseout='HidePop("99006")' href="/topics/Centaur">centaurCentaur
In Greek mythology, a centaur or hippocentaur is a member of a composite race of creatures, part human and part horse...
from Greek mythology
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
) was founded in 1981 by chairman, William J. Rutter
William J. Rutter
William J. Rutter is an American biochemist who cofounded the early biotechnology Chiron Corporation together with Edward Penhoet and Pablo DT Valenzuela...
, president and chief executive, Professor Edward Penhoet, and vice president for research, Pablo DT Valenzuela
Pablo DT Valenzuela
Pablo DT Valenzuela is a Chilean biochemist dedicated to biotechnology development. He is known for his genetic studies of hepatic viruses; participated as R&D Director in the discovery of Hepatitis C virus and the invention of the first recombinant vaccine, against Hepatitis B virus...
. All were academics from the University of California
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
; Penhoet at Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, where he continued to lecture, and the others from San Francisco
University of California, San Francisco
The University of California, San Francisco is one of the world's leading centers of health sciences research, patient care, and education. UCSF's medical, pharmacy, dentistry, nursing, and graduate schools are among the top health science professional schools in the world...
.
Chiron formed a partnership with the Swiss pharmaceutical giant, Ciba-Geigy Ltd., through the Biocine Company, to use genetic engineering to develop vaccines and to treat, prevent and diagnose diseases such as AIDS, herpes and malaria. Other partnerships included Thicon Inc. to develop a growth factor hormone for the treatment of wounds and Merck & Co to develop an improvement to their existing hepatitis B vaccine.
In 1986, Professor Penhoet said: "Our business strategy is to dominate small markets rather than take a small presence in a broad market." The niche that Chiron was focusing on was ophthalmology, which Mr. Penhoet said was "big enough to be interesting, but small enough to service with 40 salespeople." Professor Penhoet also stated that Chiron was set up to provide the enabling technology for others to use under license, and later saying that Chiron was "as close to a virtual corporation as you can be", with few fixed assets but more relationships.
Expansion
In 1988, Chiron formed a joint venture company, called Mimesys Inc., with Johnson & Johnson and the Warner-Lambert Company, to develop the next generation of biotech drugs. The following year Chiron recruited Gregory Lawless, who had come from DuPontDuPont
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company , commonly referred to as DuPont, is an American chemical company that was founded in July 1802 as a gunpowder mill by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. DuPont was the world's third largest chemical company based on market capitalization and ninth based on revenue in 2009...
, to take over as president and CEO. This led to additional buying that included the acquisition of Du Pont in partnership with Ortho Diagnostic Systems; Munich based Adatomed G.m.b.H.; and a merger with fellow biotech company Cetus Corporation after Cetus failed to get approval for its drug Interleukin-2. Hollings Renton of Cetus became president and CEO when Gregory Lawless agreed to leave. Mr Renton resigned in 1992 and was replaced by Sean Lance, from Glaxo Wellcome in 1998, and finally by Howard Pien from GlaxoSmithKlein in 2003.
After the acquisition of Cetus, Chiron split its operations among five entities: Cetus Oncology, for cancer drugs; the Biocine Company, for vaccines; Chiron Diagnostics, for blood screening and other diagnostic tests (later sold to Bayer AG for $2.1 billion); Chiron Intraoptics, for eye surgery, and Chiron Technologies, for research and development.
Products and other acquisitions
In 1992, the company's first product, Proleukin, was approved in United States for the treatment of metastaticMetastasis
Metastasis, or metastatic disease , is the spread of a disease from one organ or part to another non-adjacent organ or part. It was previously thought that only malignant tumor cells and infections have the capacity to metastasize; however, this is being reconsidered due to new research...
melanoma
Melanoma
Melanoma is a malignant tumor of melanocytes. Melanocytes are cells that produce the dark pigment, melanin, which is responsible for the color of skin. They predominantly occur in skin, but are also found in other parts of the body, including the bowel and the eye...
; previously it was only approved for use with kidney cancer
Kidney cancer
Kidney cancer is a type of cancer that starts in the cells in the kidney.The two most common types of kidney cancer are renal cell carcinoma and urothelial cell carcinoma of the renal pelvis...
. This was followed a year later by Betaseron, a beta interferon, the first treatment for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disease in which the fatty myelin sheaths around the axons of the brain and spinal cord are damaged, leading to demyelination and scarring as well as a broad spectrum of signs and symptoms...
and made by Berlex Laboratories
Berlex Laboratories
- Introduction :Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals is a research-based pharmaceutical company headquartered in Montville, New Jersey with operations in Wayne, New Jersey; Bothell, Washington; Seattle, Washington; and Richmond, California. It is a subsidiary of Bayer, headquartered in Leverkusen,...
Inc.
In 1997 Chiron provided the active ingredient, becaplermin
Becaplermin
Becaplermin is a cicatrizant, available as a topical gel.Use for diabetic foot ulcers has been described.It is also known as "platelet-derived growth factor BB"....
, in Regranex, a topical treatment for diabetic
Diabetes mellitus
Diabetes mellitus, often simply referred to as diabetes, is a group of metabolic diseases in which a person has high blood sugar, either because the body does not produce enough insulin, or because cells do not respond to the insulin that is produced...
foot ulcers, manufactured by Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical
Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical
The company was formed from the merger of Ortho Pharmaceutical and McNeil Pharmaceutical in 1993. Both of these pharmaceutical companies are pioneers and leaders in areas such as pain management, acid reflux disease, and infectious diseases...
Inc. In 2001, Chiron acquired PathoGenesis for its antibiotic
Antibiotic
An antibacterial is a compound or substance that kills or slows down the growth of bacteria.The term is often used synonymously with the term antibiotic; today, however, with increased knowledge of the causative agents of various infectious diseases, antibiotic has come to denote a broader range of...
drug Tobi, the first inhaled antibiotic approved for treating lung infections in cystic fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis
Cystic fibrosis is a recessive genetic disease affecting most critically the lungs, and also the pancreas, liver, and intestine...
patients.
Having launched its first vaccine product, Fluad, an adjuvant influenza vaccine, in 1996, the vaccine line was expanded significantly in 1998 with the acquisition of the European vaccine businesses of Behring (Germany) and Sclavo (Italy). This was followed in 2003 by the acquisition of PowderJect, the UK-based vaccines company, making Chiron the second-largest flu vaccines provider and the fifth-largest vaccines business in the world.
In 1998, Chiron's nucleic acid test
Nucleic acid test
A nucleic acid test, often called a "NAT" test, is a biochemical technique used to detect a virus or a bacterium...
ing (NAT) blood-testing business was launched in cooperation with Gen-Probe, followed a year later by the launch of the Procleix system, which detects viral RNA and DNA in donated blood and plasma during the very early stages of infection, when those infectious agents are present but cannot be detected by immunodiagnostic tests.
Chiron expanded its cancer drug portfolio in 2002 with the acquisition of Matrix Pharmaceuticals Inc and its product tezacitebine.
Chiron also manufactured the MMR
MMR vaccine
The MMR vaccine is an immunization shot against measles, mumps, and rubella . It was first developed by Maurice Hilleman while at Merck in the late 1960s....
vaccine (measles mumps and rubella) at its Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
plant.
Lawsuits
When in 1991 Cetus was acquired it was subject to a lawsuit by the Eastman KodakEastman Kodak
Eastman Kodak Company is a multinational imaging and photographic equipment, materials and services company headquarted in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded by George Eastman in 1892....
Company over the rights to the polymerase
Polymerase
A polymerase is an enzyme whose central function is associated with polymers of nucleic acids such as RNA and DNA.The primary function of a polymerase is the polymerization of new DNA or RNA against an existing DNA or RNA template in the processes of replication and transcription...
chain reaction product, which was settled in 1993.
In 1998, Chiron filed patent infringement
Patent infringement
Patent infringement is the commission of a prohibited act with respect to a patented invention without permission from the patent holder. Permission may typically be granted in the form of a license. The definition of patent infringement may vary by jurisdiction, but it typically includes using or...
suits in Europe, Japan and the US against Roche over its hepatitis C
Hepatitis C
Hepatitis C is an infectious disease primarily affecting the liver, caused by the hepatitis C virus . The infection is often asymptomatic, but chronic infection can lead to scarring of the liver and ultimately to cirrhosis, which is generally apparent after many years...
(HCV) products. Chiron was the first to clone
Cloning
Cloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...
HCV in 1987 after five years of research and had since filed over 100 HCV related patents in over 20 countries. A settlement was reached where Roche Holding A.G. agreed to buy the global semi-exclusive nucleic acid test (NAT) patents for HCV and HIV from Chiron.
Bayer, the company which bought, Chiron Diagnostics sued Chiron Corporation in 2002 citing that it hid patent and equipment problems from them during purchase negotiations. The case filed in Delaware
Delaware
Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...
alleged breach of warranty, fraud, negligent misrepresentation, violation of the duty of good faith and fair dealing and breach of contract claims in connection with the acquisition.
In 2004, Chiron attracted adverse media coverage after the UK government suspended its license for manufacturing Fluvirin, an influenza vaccine, at its plant in Liverpool, England. This action left the United States government short of the vaccine. It later emerged that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) may have been aware of the problem nine months earlier, but a miscommunication between the company and the FDA left the problem unsolved until the MHRA
Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is the UK government agency which is responsible for ensuring that medicines and medical devices work and are acceptably safe....
(Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency), the British equivalent of the FDA stepped in and suspended Chiron's license. The company undertook a remediation program and succeeded in restoring the manufacturing license from MHRA in 2005. However, the incident resulted in a class action
Class action
In law, a class action, a class suit, or a representative action is a form of lawsuit in which a large group of people collectively bring a claim to court and/or in which a class of defendants is being sued...
lawsuit for nearly $280m being brought against Chiron and its executive for allegedly, in 2003, overstating its ability to manufacture and ship the vaccine Fluvirin, thus allowing Novartis to buy Chiron shares below market value when the plant temporarily closed down. The amount settled in 2008 was for $30m.
Bombings
On 27 August 2003 two bombs exploded at Chiron's headquarters in Emeryville, California. A group calling itself Revolutionary Cells e-mailed a statement to reporters taking credit for the bombing. Their action was because of ties Chiron had with the pro vivisectionVivisection
Vivisection is defined as surgery conducted for experimental purposes on a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to view living internal structure...
company Huntingdon Life Sciences
Huntingdon Life Sciences
Huntingdon Life Sciences is a contract animal-testing company founded in 1952 in England, with facilities in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire; Eye, Suffolk; New Jersey in the U.S., and Japan...
.
The end of Chiron
NovartisNovartis
Novartis International AG is a multinational pharmaceutical company based in Basel, Switzerland, ranking number three in sales among the world-wide industry...
Corporation was the result of a merger between Sandoz Laboratories and Ciba-Geigy in 1994 and owned slightly less than half of Chiron as part of a Federal Trade Commission order. Several of Sandoz’s subsidiaries were sold off for reasons of anti monopoly legislation.
In 2005, Novartis made an offer to buy Chiron. Initially this offer was rebuffed, but after the bid was substantially enhanced, Chiron was sold, and became part of Novartis in April, 2006.
See also
- NovartisNovartisNovartis International AG is a multinational pharmaceutical company based in Basel, Switzerland, ranking number three in sales among the world-wide industry...
- Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory AgencyMedicines and Healthcare products Regulatory AgencyThe Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is the UK government agency which is responsible for ensuring that medicines and medical devices work and are acceptably safe....
- British Medical AssociationBritish Medical AssociationThe British Medical Association is the professional association and registered trade union for doctors in the United Kingdom. The association does not regulate or certify doctors, a responsibility which lies with the General Medical Council. The association’s headquarters are located in BMA House,...
- Food and Drug AdministrationFood and Drug AdministrationThe Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...