Roche Seeks $3 Billion Deal to Build on Drug, Diagnostic Focus: Report

Roche Holding AG (ROG) is open to a deal as big as $3 billion and the Swiss drugmaker is ready to “seize” the right opportunities for acquisitions, Chief Executive Officer Severin Schwan said. Roche would consider a deal about the same size as its $3.4 billion purchase of U.S. diagnostics company Ventana Medical Systems Inc. in 2008, Schwan said in an interview yesterday at the drugmaker’s headquarters in Basel, Switzerland. “If something comes up, of course we will seize it,” he said. The world’s biggest cancer-drug maker wants deals to fit its focus on medicines sold alongside diagnostic tools that show which patients will benefit from the drugs, Schwan said. Roche will continue to seek products and technologies ranging in price from 100 million Swiss francs to 300 million francs ($320 million) as well as being open to a larger purchase like Ventana, Schwan said.

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