Roche says it won’t extend Illumina offer past Friday deadline

Posted under Blog, Companies, Diagnostics, Funding, M&A, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, Pharmaceuticals, Roche, Severin Schwan, Startups, Universities, Videos by john

Roche is drawing a line in the sand in its standoff with Illumina. The pharma giant ($RHHBY) says it will not extend its $51-per-share offer for the sequencing company ($ILMN) past its Friday deadline, saying it can't go any further on the public information it has. "We continue to hold Illumina and its management in very high regard but, with access only to public information about Illumina's business and prospects, we do not believe that a price above Roche's offer for Illumina of $51.00 per share would be in the interest of Roche's shareholders," says Roche CEO Severin Schwan in a statement. Illumina has consistently turned a cold shoulder to the bid. Now Illumina has to balance a possible bluff against the potential impact on its share price if the takeover deal goes south. Release

Illumina urges investors to shun $5.7B Roche bid

Posted under Blog, Companies, Diagnostics, Funding, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, Mergers and Acquisitions, Pharmaceuticals, Roche, Startups, Universities, Videos by John Carroll

Illumina's board of directors has taken the next expected step in the traditional dance of a company angling for a better offer from a hostile suitor. The board rejected Roche's $5.7 billion bid, urging its investors not to tender their shares. And Roche played its part, expressing its disappointment that the gene sequencing company "refuses to engage in substantive discussions."

"It is the Board's unanimous belief that Roche's offer dramatically undervalues Illumina and fails to reflect the value of the company's unique leadership position and future growth prospects," said CEO Jay Flatley. "Illumina has established itself as the innovation and market leader in tools for genetic analysis, with a proven track record of profitability and outperformance, resulting in significant value creation. Our industry is nascent, with the promise and potential to experience extraordinary growth in the years ahead as genetic information becomes broadly applied beyond molecular biology research, and into medical diagnostics, reproductive health and cancer management. As the growth of this industry accelerates, Illumina is singularly positioned to expand its market leadership, and to deliver value to our stockholders that is far superior to Roche's offer."

Translation: Bump your offer of $44.50 a share and we can talk.

As of mid-morning, Illumina's shares ($ILMN) were up a bit, treading at $52.27. That indicates that many investors still believe that once the two dancers go through their moves, Roche ($RHHBY) will decide to dig deeper to come up with a more tantalizing offer.

- get the press release
- here's the story from Reuters
- read the Bloomberg piece 

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Severin Schwan – The 25 most influential people in biopharma today

Posted under Blog, Companies, dalcetrapid, Diagnostics, Funding, Genentech, Herceptin, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, Pharmaceuticals, Roche, Severin Schwan, Startups, Universities, Videos by Ryan McBride

Championing next-gen personalized meds

Severin Schwan
CEO
Roche Group

Severin Schwan has been a difference maker in the business of targeted cancer drugs and understanding the role diagnostics play in matching the right patients with the right treatments. While not all pharma chiefs are willing to pump as much money as Roche ($RHHBY) into diagnostics and gene sequencing platforms, many of them have been pushing their own companies to follow the lead of targeted drugs such as Roche's Herceptin for breast cancer.

Schwan, of course, pulled the trigger on his Swiss company's landmark acquisition of Genentech in 2009, a megamerger that solidified Roche as the largest provider of cancer drugs in the world. And now the CEO of Roche has his sights set on transforming his company into the world's leader proving DNA sequencers--viewed as essential tools for pinpointing the genetic targets for personalized drugs and diagnostics--via the company's hostile bid to buy Illumina ($ILMN) for $5.7 billion.

Roche very well could end up owning Illumina. Yet even without the San Diego-based maker of DNA decoders, thanks in part of Schwan's leadership, Roche has the infrastructure to both develop drugs against specific genetic targets and introduce companion diagnostics for those therapies. Now, as we see over and over, most major biopharma outfits want a piece of the targeted drug business, with other heavyweights such as Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ) eager to grow their own pieces of the targeted drug pie.

Targeted drugs aim to take out the drivers of diseases and reduce side effects on patients, traits that also make the treatments good for business. Schwann has repeated over and over his cause to make the pharma side of Roche laser focused on innovative drugs to deliver big benefits for patients, expecting only those remedies to garner premium prices from cost-conscious health payers and governments.

Along the innovation lines, Schwan has honored a tradition at Roche of diligent exploration of diseases and development of new drugs since taking over as CEO in 2008. And the company's R&D efforts have positioned the company to bring a slate of potential blockbusters to market, including its projected megablockbuster cardiovascular drug dalcetrapib.

Big Pharma chiefs balk at bidding against Roche for Illumina

Posted under Blog, Companies, Diagnostics, Dna Sequencing, Funding, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, Novartis, Pharmaceuticals, Roche, Sanofi, Startups, Universities, Videos by Ryan McBride

Other major pharma chiefs don't see the same opportunity in acquiring Illumina ($ILMN) as does Roche CEO Severin Schwan, whose company's $5.7 billion hostile takeover bid for the maker of DNA sequencers has generated buzz about other potential suitors. Based on their recent remarks on the situation, count out Sanofi ($SNY) CEO Chris Viehbacher and Novartis ($NVS) CEO Joe Jimenez. "It's just not the risk profile we're looking for. It could pay off well or there's a big downside," Viehbacher said, as quoted by Reuters. "You need to be part of new technologies but I think partnership is the way to go." Article