After making a $43.7 billion offer linkurl:yesterday;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/54841/ (July 21) to buy the 44% of Genentech stock it didn't already own, the Swiss pharmaceutical company announced another biotech purchase today. Roche will acquire linkurl:Mirus Bio Corporation;http://www.mirusbio.com/ for $125 million. Roche's half-year financial linkurl:results,;http://www.roche.com/home/figures/fig_halfyearrep_2008.htm released on Monday but eclipsed by the Genentech offer, showed a six percent decline in pharmaceutical sales. Roche intends to borrow half the funds required for the Genentech takeover, according to a report published Monday by Global Insight pharmaceutical analyst Gaelle Marinoni, which "implies that the Swiss giant is keeping its options and cash stash open for further smaller acquisitions." Mirus, one of those smaller acquisitions, is a private US-owned company based in Madison, Wisconsin that specializes in RNA interference (RNAi) technologies. Their products include nucleic acid reagents, kits, and protocols, and the company has siRNA delivery platforms in the pipeline. This is not Roche's first move toward...
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