Seemingly, the possibility of taking over a biotech giant and an RNAi firm isn’t enough; Roche now wants Arius’ antibody candidates and platform.
Roche reported its third acquisition target in three consecutive days: Arius Research. Roche will pay approximately C$191 million, or $189.37 million.
Roche began its life science firm shopping spree with Genentech, offering to pay $43.7 billion, and then moved on to propose $125 million for Mirus Bio.
Roche will pay C$2.44 per Arius share, a 13% premium to yesterday’s closing price. The company will also acquire all Arius’ issued and outstanding warrants. Roche will pay C$1.44 for each Class F warrant and C$1.78 for each Class G warrant.
Roche has already obtained the approval from shareholders, warrant holders, and management representing 54.3% of outstanding shares and 72.3% of outstanding warrants. The firm expects to close the transaction in the third quarter. The Arius site will serve as a center for the discovery of biotherapeutics, according to Roche.
Arius’ antibody platform, FunctionFirst™, identifies and selects antibodies based on their efficacy in affecting disease. Roche says that it will initially exploit the technology in oncology and inflammatory diseases.
“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,” states Lee Babiss, head of global research at Roche. “The FunctionFirst approach provides us with a large library of antibodies from which we can identify the best new drug candidates for the development of clinically differentiated medicines.”
