Rivals See No Need to Match Roche's Big Gene Bet

Roche Holding AG's rivals Sanofi SA and Novartis AG see no need to match the Swiss drug maker in buying a gene-decoding business like Illumina Inc and reckon they can do partnerships instead. The relaxed attitude in the face of Roche's $5.7 billion hostile bid for Illumina suggests the chance of a counterbid from big drug makers is slim, although diagnostics and IT companies may yet show interest. "Everybody is thinking about diagnostics but you can get access to this technology without necessarily having to acquire the company," Novartis Chief Executive Joe Jimenez told Reuters at the World Economic Forum in Davos.