Roche agrees takeover of Santaris Pharma

Roche has announced the acquisition of Santaris Pharma in a deal worth up to $450 million (266.62 million pounds).

Based near Copenhagen, the Danish biopharmaceutical company is best known for the development of its proprietary Locked Nucleic Acid platform, which has contributed to an emerging era of RNA-targeting therapeutics.

The takeover deal will close later this month and will see Roche make an upfront cash payment of $250 million, plus additional contingent payments of up to $200 million based on the achievement of certain predetermined milestones.

Roche plans to maintain Santaris Pharma's current base in Denmark, renaming it the Roche Innovation Centre Copenhagen.

John Reed, head of Roche pharmaceutical research and early development, said: "We believe the LNA platform provides the means to efficiently discover and develop an important new class of medicines that may address the significant needs of patients across multiple therapeutic areas."

This comes after the group also agreed deals to purchase Seragon Pharmaceuticals and Genia Technologies in the last two months.