Roche launches $3 billion hostile takeover bid for diagnostics company

pharmafile | July 5, 2007 | News story | Sales and Marketing  

Roche has launched a hostile takeover bid for cancer diagnostics company Ventana, offering to pay around $3 billion for the firm.

The Swiss pharma company says acquiring Ventana will help it take a step closer to providing personalised healthcare, particularly in the field of oncology.

Ventana is a leader in the histopathology (analysis of tissue samples) sector, and is one of the manufacturers of tests for the HER2 gene in breast cancer.

Roche's cancer drug Herceptin is given only to women who have the HER2 gene, and a closer commercial and clinical tie-in between the products would help the company boost sales of both diagnostics and drugs.

But Ventana has repeatedly resisted friendly overtures from the Roche management team, forcing the pharma company to launch a hostile takeover bid.

The pharma company's $3 billion dollar offer to Ventana shareholders represents a 44% premium to the company's current market value, but Ventana's board has urged shareholders not to act before it issues its formal response to the offer.

Roche says the deal would give it the most comprehensive diagnostic portfolio in the market, which is becoming increasingly competitive.

The $1 billion tissue-based testing market is growing at 10% annually, twice the rate of the overall in-vitro diagnostics market, driven by increasing use of targeted cancer drugs requiring companion diagnostics.

 

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