Roche and Foundation Medicine Reach Definitive Merger Agreement to Accelerate Broad Availability of Comprehensive Genomic Profiling in Oncology

Roche (OTCQX:RHHBY) and Foundation Medicine (NASDAQ:FMI) have announced they have entered into a definitive merger agreement for Roche to acquire the outstanding shares of FMI’s common stock not already owned by Roche and its affiliates at US$137 per share in cash.

As quoted in the press release:

This corresponds to a total transaction value of US$ 2.4 billion on a fully diluted basis, and a total company value of US$ 5.3 billion on a fully diluted basis. This price represents a premium of 29% to FMI’s closing price on 18 June 2018 and a premium of 47% and 68% to FMI’s 30-day and 90-day volume weighted average share price on 18 June 2018, respectively. The merger agreement has been unanimously approved by the board of Roche and a Special Committee of the independent directors of FMI and by its full board of directors with the Roche designated directors abstaining from the deliberations and vote. All current members of the FMI board have indicated that they intend to tender their FMI shares in the tender offer.

Daniel O’Day, CEO Roche Pharmaceuticals, said, “This is important to our personalised healthcare strategy as we believe molecular insights and the broad availability of high quality comprehensive genomic profiling are key enablers for the development of, and access to, new cancer treatments. We will preserve FMI’s autonomy while supporting them in accelerating their progress.”

Foundation Medicine, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a market leading molecular information company dedicated to a transformation in cancer care, where each patient’s treatment is informed by a deep understanding of the molecular changes that contribute to their disease. Their services include a full suite of comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) assays to identify the molecular alterations in a patient’s cancer and match them with relevant targeted therapies, immunotherapies and clinical trials.

Click here to read the full press release.