Roche Holding AG made an official statement, revealing that it is to acquire the privately held Danish biopharmaceutical company Santaris Pharma in a deal valued at up to 450 million dollars. Roche also announced that the acquisition would give it access to a series of drugs for diseases that have proved hard to treat.
Mr. John Reed, who is the head of the pharma research and early development division of Roche Holding said in the announcement, which was cited by the Financial Times: “Today there are many disease targets that are very challenging or even impossible to reach with small molecules or antibodies.” Mr. Reed also added: “We believe the LNA platform provides the means to efficiently discover and develop an important new class of medicines that may address the significant needs of patients across multiple therapeutic areas.”
According to the statement of Roche Holding AG, the company would initially pay 250 million dollars in cash for Santaris Pharma. Then additional payments of up to 200 million dollars will be made in case certain targets are met.
Roche Holding AG has been quite disciplined when it comes to acquisitions after its planned 6.8-billion-dollar purchase of Illumina Inc. failed in 2012. The takeover is the third acquisition made by Roche recently. The company purchased Seragon Pharmaceuticals in a 1.7-billion-dollar deal in July, and Genia in a deal that amounted to 350 million dollars in June.
The announcement for the acquisition of Santaris Pharma comes at a time when Switzerland-based Roche has just won reversal of a 2.1-million-dollar verdict over a womans claim that its Accutane drug was responsible for her inflammatory bowel disease. The company has been facing a hard time related with about 8 000 suits that blamed Accutane for inflammatory bowel disease. This is the first trial win after the company has lost five suits since 2007.
Roche Holding AG was 0.77% up to trade at 263.10 Swiss francs per share by 7:35 GMT, giving the company a market valuation of 224.60 billion Swiss francs. Roches shares have gained 14.14% in the past twelve months. According to the information published on the Financial Times, the 24 analysts offering 12-month price targets for Roche Holding AG have a median target of 290.00, with a high estimate of 335.00 and a low estimate of 251.00. The median estimate represents a 9.56% increase from the last price of 264.70.
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