Products and Other Acquisitions
In 1992, the company's first product, Proleukin, was approved in United States for the treatment of metastatic 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 testing (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.
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