Chiron Completes Sale of Diagnostics Unit

Chiron Corp., one of the world’s biggest biotech companies, completed the $1.1-billion sale of its diagnostics unit to Bayer of Germany. Bayer paid cash for Walpole, Mass.-based Chiron Diagnostics, whose testing services take in endocrinology, infectious disease, allergy and oncology. The unit had 1997 sales of $607 million and has operations in 20 countries. The move allows Chiron, whose shares have risen about 35% since the sale was announced in September, to focus more on developing drugs. Chiron had been criticized for its failure to commercialize technologies developed in its laboratories, considered to be among the world’s top biotechnology research centers. The transaction will have little impact on Chiron earnings because the unit was only marginally profitable, the company has said. Chiron will keep its blood-screening business, and it will also retain patent rights to HIV and hepatitis C tests, which provide royalty revenue. Stock in Emeryville-based Chiron fell 88 cents to close at $22.63 on Nasdaq.