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Chiron: Chiron Diagnostics
built 207 days ago
Chiron was a top biotech firm -- it is now a part of Novartis. Before the merger, Chiron covered several areas, including vaccines and drugs, but now it is specializing in developing screening diagnostics for blood supplies. This is nothing new for the company; it was the first to identify the hepatitis B and C viruses. It has already developed blood-testing products to detect HIV and other viruses. Novartis created a new division, Novartis Vaccines & Diagnostics, consisting of two businesses: Novartis Vaccines and a blood diagnostics business that will retain the Chiron name.
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Dr. Urdea was instrumental in directing the molecular diagnostic efforts at Chiron, where he was one of a handful of initial employees and later joined Bayer Diagnostics as senior vice president and acting CSO of the nucleic acid diagnostics division. Leaving Bayer, Dr. Urdea most recently co-founded Tethys Bioscience, a molecular diagnostic company which has installed Singulex' Zeptx system to aid in critical biomarker discovery and validation.
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Chiron has commercialized more than 40 infectious disease focused products and testing systems through its vaccine and blood testing businesses. Menjugate is the lead product of Chiron's vaccine business, which ... includes a portfolio of traditional and emerging vaccines targeting infectious diseases. Procleix, a nucleic acid testing system for screening the blood supply for hepatitis C and HIV, is the basis for an emerging business in blood testing. Chiron participates in a joint business with Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, Inc., which markets a range of infection screening tests and diagnostics.
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Chiron researchers ... continued to study hepatitis, and, in 1988, they discovered the hepatitis C virus. Previously undetected, the hepatitis C virus had caused approximately 150,000 people each year to become ill through infected blood transfusions. To market hepatitis C screening tests, Chiron joined forces with Johnson & Johnson's Ortho Diagnostics Systems. Under the name Chiron Diagnostics, the division developed several blood tests to screen for various forms of hepatitis, and these tests were sold to blood banks and hospitals worldwide.
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The Chiron signs will be coming down at company headquarters today after the close of the transaction, expected just after midnight. Chiron's drug programs will be absorbed into Novartis Pharmaceuticals, while its vaccines and blood testing units will become part of a new division, Novartis Vaccines & Diagnostics. The diagnostics unit of that division will retain the Chiron name.
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Novartis Vaccines & Diagnostics is a new division of Novartis focused on the development of preventive treatments and tools and was formed following the recent acquisition of Chiron Corporation. The division has two businesses: Novartis Vaccines and Chiron. Novartis Vaccines is the world's fifth-largest vaccines manufacturer and second-largest supplier of flu vaccines in the US. Novartis Vaccines & Diagnostics' products ... include meningococcal, pediatric and travel vaccines. Chiron, the blood testing and molecular diagnostics business, is dedicated to preventing the spread of infectious diseases through the development of novel blood-screening tools that protect the world's blood supply.
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