Chiron Corporation was an American multinational biotechnology firm based in Emeryville, California that was acquired by Novartis International AG on April 20, 2006. It had offices and facilities in eighteen countries on five continents. Chiron's business and research was in three main areas: biopharmaceuticals, vaccines and blood testing. Chiron's vaccines and blood testing units were been combined to form Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, while Chiron BioPharmaceuticals were integrated into Novartis Pharmaceuticals. In 2014, Novartis completed the sale of its blood transfusion diagnostics unit ("Novartis Diagnostics"​) to Grifols, S.A. (Barcelona, Spain) and announced agreements for the sale of its vaccines unit ("Novartis Vaccines"​).