Roche
Enzo Life Sciences Sues Roche, Gen-Probe
GenomeWeb Daily News reported that Enzo Life Sciences has filed lawsuits against Roche, Life Technologies, and Gen-Probe, alleging they infringed Enzo's patent pertaining to labeled nucleotides for use as diagnostic tools. According to GenomeWeb, in the lawsuits filed January 30 in U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, Enzo claimed that the companies infringed U.S. Patent No. 6,992,180 titled "Oligo- or polynucleotides comprising phosphate-moiety labeled nucleotides" that...
Roche to Nominate Directors at Illumina Annual Meeting
Roche has provided notice to Illumina Inc. that it will nominate a slate of highly qualified, independent candidates for election to Illumina’s Board of Directors and propose certain other matters for the consideration of Illumina’s shareholders at Illumina’s 2012 annual meeting, which, if adopted, would result in Roche-nominated directors comprising a majority of the Illumina board. Roche also named five alternate nominees for election to Illumina’s board. In addition...
Roche vs. Illumina: The Drama Intensifies
  Update: The New York Times' Dealbook blog posted this in-depth look at the loophole in Illumina's organizational documents that is making it possible for Roche to gain the advantage.   As we blogged about last week, Roche intends to buy Illumina Inc., an international company headquartered in San Diego that develops and manufactures array-based systems for DNA, RNA, and protein analysis. However, Illumina's Board of Directors appears to be uninterested in Roche’s offer and has...
Illumina Responds to Roche's Offer, Adopts Stockholder Rights Agreement
Illumina Responds to Roche's Offer, Adopts Stockholder Rights Agreement Illumina Inc. announced that its Board of Directors adopted a Rights Agreement, pursuant to which one preferred stock purchase right will be distributed as a dividend on each share of the Company’s common stock held of record as of the close of business on February 6, 2012 (the “Rights”). Initially, the Rights will be represented by the Company’s common stock certificates, or by the registration of...
Roche Offers to Acquire Illumina
Roche is proposing to acquire all outstanding shares of Illumina Inc. for $44.50 per share in cash, or an aggregate of approximately $5.7 billion on a fully diluted basis. This offer represents a 64% premium over Illumina’s stock price on December 21, 2011 – the day before market rumors about a potential transaction between Roche and Illumina drove Illumina’s stock price significantly higher – a 61% premium over the one-month historical average and a 43% premium over the...
Roche, Technoclone Enter into Strategic Alliance
Roche has entered into a strategic alliance with Technoclone, a reagent specialist in thrombosis and cardiovascular diagnostics based in Vienna, Austria. The alliance complements Roche’s strategic re-focus on hemostasis. Following the discontinuation of the distribution agreement with STAGO1 and the recent acquisition of Verum Diagnostica, Roche will bring to market a brand-new, innovative hemostasis portfolio including two new system families, platelet function testing and a new holistic...
Ventana, Bayer to Collaborate on Companion Diagnostic for Cancer Therapy
Ventana Medical Systems Inc., a member of the Roche Group, has entered into a strategic collaboration agreement with Bayer Bayer Pharma AG (Bayer) to develop a molecular companion diagnostic test intended to identify patients most likely to benefit from a Bayer antibody-drug conjugate (ADC). Ventana’s diagnostic immunohistochemistry platform aims to analyze the expression level of certain tumor targets serving as biomarkers in clinical studies for patient selection. This will support the...
A Roche Technology Helps to I.D. Genetic Mutations Related to Hearing Loss
Roche reports that a German research team led by Ingo Kurth from the Institute of Human Genetics at the University Hospital used various methods, including Roche’s NimbleGen Custom Sequence Capture 385K array, to identify the gene mutated in the disease locus of the X-chromosome of a Spanish family with hereditary hearing loss. Targeted enrichment was performed by the German Service Provider ATLAS Biolabs GmbH. In particular, the DNA of two affected males was subjected to target...
Roche Receives FDA Clearance for Blood Glucose Monitoring System
Roche has received clearance from FDA for its ACCU-CHEK Nano SmartView blood glucose monitoring system. The new ACCU-CHEK Nano meter, which is smaller than a standard credit card, employs a large brilliant backlit display and does not require any manual coding or code key for enhanced ease of use. It also offers improved functions such as customizable test reminders, pre- and postmeal markers and average glucose calculation. The ACCU-CHEK Nano meter uses ACCU-CHEK SmartView test strips and will...
Ventana to Collaborate with Pfizer, CST on Lung Cancer Companion Diagnostic
Ventana Medical Systems Inc., a member of the Roche Group, has entered into a collaboration agreement with Pfizer Inc. and a license agreement with Cell Signaling Technology (CST) to develop the first fully automated and standardized immunohistochemistry (IHC) companion diagnostic test for ALK gene rearrangements. Ventana will develop the test which is intended to identify non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with anaplastic lymphoma receptor tyrosinekinase (ALK) gene rearrangements who...