Roche Acquires Arius, Gains Access to Antibody Therapeutics Screening Platform

Roche (Basel, Switzerland) will acquire Arius Research Inc. (Toronto, Canada) in an all-cash transaction for approximately $190 million. Arius is the developer of a proprietary antibody platform called FunctionFIRST, which identifies and selects antibodies based on their functional ability to affect disease before progressing into clinical development. The FunctionFIRST platform will allow Roche to further strengthen its developmental portfolio, initially in the areas of oncology and inflammatory diseases for which this new technique offers potentially broad therapeutic applications.

The acquisition is expected to close in the third quarter of 2008. Roche intends to keep the Arius site open and serve as a center for the discovery of innovative biotherapeutics, focusing on the areas of oncology and inflammation.