Roche to acquire Arius

Roche has signed a definitive agreement to purchase Arius Research in an all-cash transaction worth around C$191 million (94 million pounds) with the aim of gaining access to a new screening platform for antibody therapeutics.

Roche will pay C$2.44 for each share in Arius, a 15 per cent premium on the closing price on July 22nd 2008 and a 44 per cent premium on the 20-day volume-weighted average closing price on May 15th 2008.

Arius is the developer of the proprietary FunctionFirst antibody platform that identifies and selects antibodies before they progress into clinical development based on their functional ability to have an effect on disease.

Roche claims this acquisition will facilitate the further strengthening of its development portfolio, with this development starting in oncology and inflammatory diseases – two fields where the technique offers potentially broad therapeutic applications.

Lee Babiss, head of global research at Roche, said: “Arius’ promising platform and early pipeline of new antibody candidates represent an excellent fit with our own progressing research in the fields of cancer and immunology.”

He added that the FunctionFirst system will provide the company with a large antibody library from which it can identify the best drug candidates to develop clinically differentiated medicines.

Earlier this month, Roche announced plans to purchase Mirus Bio to advance its Ribonucleic Acid interference delivery research.