Roche Holdings Ltd. (RHHBY) recently inked an agreement under which it will acquire Germany-based mtm laboratories AG. Following the completion of the acquisition, mtm labs will become a part of Roche’s Tissue Diagnostics business unit.
According to the terms of the acquisition, Roche will make an upfront payment of about €130 million to mtm shareholders, along with payments of about €60 million on the achievement of certain performance-based milestones.
Mtm labs’ product portfolio consists of CINtec Plus Cytology kit, which is currently used in Europe to identify over-expression of p16, a gene that suppresses tumor growth in a cell, in cervical Pap test samples to detect pre-cancerous lesions. This helps in the classification of patients with abnormal Pap or positive HPV results into those with and without significant pre-cancer or cancer, therefore, reducing unnecessary biopsies and ensuring appropriate treatment.
Roche already has cobas HPV assay for cervical cancer testing and we believe the addition of CINtec Plus will help expand Roche’s footprint in cervical cancer testing.
CINtec Histology, mtm’s second product, is marketed worldwide (except US) for the detection of over-expression of p16 and is used in conjunction with traditional staining techniques to aid in the identification of high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) and cervical carcinoma in biopsy samples. This assay is an addition to Roche’s current list of tissue-based cancer diagnostics.
We note that in the recent past Roche has been through a number of acquisitions and agreements in a bid to strengthen its product portfolio.
Last month, the company entered into three collaborations, which include the agreement with Evotec AG for the development of oncology drugs, a collaboration agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY) for the development of a combination drug involving Roche’s vemurafenib and Bristol-Myers’ Yervoy (ipilimumab) to treat skin cancer and a licensing agreement with TeaRx Ltd., wherein it granted TeaRx development and commercialization rights to treatments for patients at risk of thrombosis in Russia and 12 other countries.
We currently have a Zacks #2 Rank (short-term Buy rating) on Roche.
BRISTOL-MYERS (BMY): Free Stock Analysis Report
Get all Zacks Research Reports and be alerted to fast-breaking buy and sell opportunities every trading day.
Be the first to comment