Gordon M. Binder, chief executive of Amgen...

Gordon M. Binder, chief executive of Amgen Inc., was named chairman of the California Health Care Institute, a medical and academic public policy advocacy group in La Jolla.

The institute represents about 90 universities, research institutions and drug and medical companies in California.

This will be an additional post for Binder, who joined Amgen in 1982 as chief financial officer and was named chief executive officer of the company in 1988.

Dr. Fu-Kuen Lin, a scientist at Amgen, has received the 1995 Discoverers Award from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

Lin’s research team helped isolate the gene for a human protein called erythropoietin, which Amgen later developed into its first biotechnology drug called Epogen, used to treat chronic anemia in patients suffering from kidney disease. Epogen was approved for sale by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States in 1990 and is now one of the best-selling biotechnology drugs.

Amgen, based in Thousand Oaks, has grown into the world’s largest biotechnology company.