Zurich: Roche Holding AG sought on Thursday to persuade Illumina to discuss its $6.7 billion bid for the genetics firm as a rebound for its key cancer drug Avastin helped the Swiss drugmaker post solid first-quarter sales.
Roche, the world’s largest maker of cancer drugs, said first-quarter sales fell 1 percent to 11.03 billion Swiss francs ($12.05 billion), but rose 2% at constant exchange rates, meeting the average analyst forecast in a Reuters poll.
Roche said its $51-per-share offer for Illumina - raised from an initial $44.50 - should be “more than enough” to begin negotiations with the maker of genetic analysis equipment that can help better identify which patients benefit from drugs.
“Illumina has to date not provided any quantitative support for their aggressive growth assumptions. We believe that their long term growth expectations are unrealistic,” chief executive Severin Schwan said in a statement.
His comments echo those made in a letter to Illumina shareholders late on Wednesday in which Schwan ridiculed Illumina’s claim to be “the Apple of the genomics business”.
He said Illumina’s gene sequencing products were “not the iPhone and the iPad,” referring to Apple’s popular personal electronics products.
Last week, Illumina and leading shareholders rejected Roche’s sweetened offer, saying it dramatically undervalued the company, and urged investors to vote against Roche’s bid to get its own nominees elected onto the board at a meeting next week.
The global pharmaceutical industry is facing a series of challenges, from patent expiries to government price cuts.
Roche is better positioned than most to weather the storm, however, since its top-selling cancer medicines do not face imminent generic competition.
Even so, it has not been able to escape the impact of austerity measures in Europe, where many countries have imposed big cuts in their medicine bills.
Roche reiterated it hopes sales will grow in the low-to-mid single digit range at constant exchange rates this year, while core earnings grow in the high single-digits.
Sales of Avastin rose 1% to 1.385 billion francs, meeting average analyst forecasts and reversing several quarters of decline for what used to be Roche’s top selling drug.
Roche said the drug’s growth was mainly driven by increased use in lung and colon cancer, with growth in Japan and emerging markets offsetting a modest decline in western Europe, while sales stabilised in the United States.
