Pablo Valenzuela, Scientific Director and Cofounder of Fundación Ciencia & Vida, was honored by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) with the Gold Medal for Inventors

20/10/2015

The biochemist and entrepreneur Pablo Valenzuela Valdés, recipient of the National Prize for Applied and Technological Sciences in 2002, was recently awarded with the Gold Medal for Inventors of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). WIPO is an agency of the United Nations created to encourage creative activity and to promote and protect intellectual property throughout the world. This award is offered by national and international organizations to outstanding inventors and this is the first time a Chilean is honored with this important international prize.

The award ceremony took place at the Chilean National Institute of Industrial Property (INAPI) and was led by Mario Matus, Deputy Director of the Development Sector of WIPO, and by Maximiliano Santa Cruz, National Director of INAPI.

Pablo Valenzuela earned his degree in Biochemistry from the University of Chile (1967) and a Ph.D. degree in Chemistry at Northwestern University (1970). After a postdoctoral training at University of California, San Francisco, together with W. Rutter and E. Penhoet he founded in 1981 Chiron Corporation, which a decade later became the second-largest biotechnology company in the world. Valenzuela participated in the development of the first recombinant vaccine against hepatitis B virus and in the discovery of hepatitis C virus, and is an inventor with more than 50 patents in Chile and abroad.

In the words of Mr. Matus, the WIPO Gold Medal for Inventors “was awarded to Dr. Valenzuela for his innovative and creative achievements around the world and recognizes the contribution of Mr. Valenzuela to international health and development”.

Gold Medal PV

Dr. Pablo Valenzuela receiving the WIPO Gold Medal for Inventors at the Chilean National Institute of Industrial Property (INAPI).

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