Roche acquires Mirus
22 Jul 2008
Roche has agreed to acquire the US-based Mirus Bio Corporation for $125 million (£62.4 million).
Mirus specialises in the development of innovative nucleic acid-based technologies, including the RNAi (Ribonucleic Acid interference) delivery platform.
The Swiss pharmaceutical giant reports RNAi is a naturally-occurring mechanism in the body which "silences" certain genes, while the delivery platform is being developed to target specific diseases with RNAi molecules.
Lee Babiss, global head of Roche pharma research, says: "The technology brought by Mirus, together with additional technologies, will bring us closer to creating fully-enabled RNAi therapeutics."
President of Mirus Russell Smestad stated that future progress will be greatly accelerated as a result of the companies working together.
Roche yesterday posted "very good" financial results for the second quarter.
It revealed its net income has reached 5.7 billion Swiss francs (£2.8 billion) "despite expected significantly lower Tamiflu sales" and increased investment in research and development.
