Roche has options beyond Illumina

Speaking at the company's annual meeting, Swiss drug major Roche (ROG: SIX) chairman Franz Humer said: "Our strategy of concentrating on pharmaceuticals and diagnostics and our sharp focus on innovation will also be key for our future success. The proposed acquisition of Illumina would strengthen our Diagnostics Division because gene sequencing will be a key technology going forward. Roche and Illumina would benefit from a rapid merger. However, this is an area where we have other options should the transaction fail over price."

Earlier this year, Roche made a hostile $5.7 billion bid to acquire Illumina which has been rebuffed by the latter (The Pharma Letters passim). Mr Humer said other companies were making quantum leaps in gene sequencing, noting Roche itself was working on such new technology. Other players in the gene sequencing space include Ion Torrent, a unit of Life Technologies (LIFE.O), as well as small operators like privately held Oxford Nanopore Technologies, which last month unveiled a palm-sized DNA sequencer, noted a Reuters report.

Commenting on Roche’s performance in 2011 (TPL February 1) at the meeting, Roche chief executive Severin Schwan said: “We met our sales and earnings goals for the year and made significant progress in our drug development programs. Following positive data from 17 of last year’s late-phase trials, we are now even more strongly positioned to launch innovative new products that will deliver growth in the years ahead. Nothing illustrates this better than the innovative cancer medicines Zelboraf (vemurafenib) and Erivedge (vismodegib), both of which have received accelerated approvals in major markets in recent months.”