he said. ''And we are very hopeful in the weeks that come we can clarify the number much, much more clearly.

Chiron has recently made tremendous strides, including returning to the U.S. influenza vaccine market, building a compelling oncology pipeline and extending our growth in the blood-testing business,

We think pricing will also remain firm with the increased awareness among consumers about flu vaccinations,

We consider 2005 supply something we will update as we have more information in the weeks to come,

We are in possession of one of the key ingredients of a potential solution to the pandemic threat.

We ran out of days ... the number of changes we have had to make took us away from being able to produce vaccine.

We believe that our confirmatory testing indicated that the problem was confined to a limited number of lots. Therefore, today's action ... is unexpected and disappointing. But we respect the regulatory authority's judgment, because we believe it's fundamentally based on concerns for safety.

We are again positioned to help meet the needs of patients, healthcare providers and customers.