Roche Buys Corange In Major Diagnostics Move

Roche of Switzerland has finally made its long-rumored acquisition, butnot at all in the direction that had been expected. Roche is acquiring the Bermuda-based holding company Corange, which is parent to the German diagnostics and pharmaceuticals firm Boehringer Mannheim, in a deal valued at $11 billion.

The acquisition puts Roche at the head of ranking in the global diagnostics arena. Around 66% of BM's sales are generated from its diagnostics business, which will substantially increase Roche's diagnostics business - the smallest of all its four divisions. Roche's premerger diagnostics business represents 4.75% of total sales, and after the merger the sector will represent 16.42% of the group's total turnover.

The new diagnostics company, Roche Boehringer Mannheim Diagnostics, will have annual sales estimated at over 3.5 billion Swiss francs ($2.4 billion), and some 13,500 staff. It will have R&D centers and large production facilities in Germany, the USA and Switzerland, and will compete with the US company Abbott Laboratories, which until the birth of RBMD was the diagnostics market leader.