New Investments By Chiron Vaccines At Rosia

Siena 7. 1. 2003 (PROTEXT/ots) - Chiron Vaccines, a BusinessUnit of California-based Chiron Corporation, has announced thatit has allocated 21 million euro for the expansion of secondarymanufacturing facilities at its Rosia site, Italy. The newsfollows the 29 million euro investment announced last Septemberfor the construction of fermentation and purification facilitiesfor glyco-conjugated bacterial vaccine production and relatedinfrastructure, also at its manufacturing site in Rosia.

"The new project will allow us to be more effective in theproduction of vaccines, thanks both to the construction of a newmodular sterile manufacturing facility for the formulation,filling and inspection of sterile dosage forms and to theretrofit of the existing manufacturing facility. Moreover, thereorganisation of existing raw materials and finished goodswarehouses, in order to increase the amount of available storagespace and improve the flow of materials, will enable a moreefficient organisation of logistics" - notes Dario Cresci,Executive Director Fill & Finish Operations.

The new structure will be integrated with the alreadyexisting buildings, where 200 employees currently work, and willmeet medium and long term plans for development: "The facilitywill have eight separate production suites and is designed to beexpandable to a total of twelve production suites. It has beendesigned to handle both existing product forms (syringes andvials) and can be expanded to manufacture new forms currentlyunder development. The facility has been designed to meet thehighest worldwide standards for the production of vaccines",says Thomas Lingelbach, Vice President Industrial Operations ofChiron Vaccines.

"The considerable funding allocated for the expansion of ourmanufacturing activities at Rosia represents both anacknowledgment from Chiron headquarters of the strength ofChiron Vaccines' results to date and a demonstration of theimportant role that the Italian site will play in themanufacturing structure of Chiron", says Luca Guerzoni,Managing Director of Chiron Srl .

"It is particularly on meningitis, in all its bacterialforms, that Chiron Vaccines plans to focus attention in the nextfew years, continuing at the same time in the development of newcombination vaccines, particularly those based on theHaemophilus influenzae"- concludes Luca Guerzoni. "The strategyof our Company is further endorsed by our goal to get FDAapproval of both new facilities by 2005".

ABOUT CHIRON Chiron Corporation, headquartered in Emeryville, California,is a global pharmaceutical company that leverages a diversebusiness model to develop and commercialize high-value productsthat make a difference in people's lives. The company has astrategic focus on cancer and infectious disease. Chiron appliesits advanced understanding of the biology of cancer andinfectious disease to develop products from its platforms inproteins, small molecules and vaccines. The companycommercializes its products through three business units:biopharmaceuticals, vaccines and blood testing. ChironCorporation is listed on Nasdaq

ABOUT CHIRON VACCINES Chiron Vaccines, the fifth largest vaccine business in theworld, currently offers more than 30 novel and conventionalvaccines for adults and children. Chiron Vaccines' mission is tobring to the market, through innovation and creativity,biological solutions needed for the prevention and treatment ofinfectious diseases. Every second, 25 people across more than 70countries of the world are vaccinated with a Chiron vaccine.

For more information about Chiron, visit the company'swebsite at www.chiron.com ots Original Text Service: Chiron Vaccines Internet:http://www.presseportal.de Contacts: Donatella Latocca - tel. +0577/243256 --donatella_latocca@chiron.it Eleonora Vannuccini - tel.+0577/243318 -- eleonora_vannuccini@chiron.it

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