[Histonet] Roche/Genetech Today Buy-out and Lay-offs

[Akemi Allison-Tacha]

FYI... This is from Todays Fierce Pharma Report:
Today's Top Stories

1. Roche to cut jobs in "California cowboys" deal
By Tracy Staton	 Comment |  Forward
Deal dissection of the day, No. 1: Now that Genentech has finally conceded to Roche's buyout plans, the postgame analysis begins. As we all know after months of following the possibility of a deal, preserving innovation at Genentech is job one. Next on the priority list comes cost-cutting. But neither of those goals will kick in if shareholders don't tender, so we're hearing plenty about their opinions. Here's a sampling of the predictions, prognositications, and pushy advice:

Roche plans to shed more than 1,500 jobs in New Jersey and relocate major operations to California as part of the Genentech takeover. Some 1,600 researchers and scientists will stay behind in Nutley, NJ. But the company is redoing its campus master plan to figure out what to do with all the vacant buildings that are left. And who's first in line for the job cuts? None other than sales and marketing, the Star-Ledger says.

After years of partnership, Roche and Genentech are already close. Merging their drug portolios should be a snap, New York Times DealBook says. But their cultures are almost diametrically opposed: Roche is Swiss; trains-running-on-time, precision-watchmaking Swiss. Genentech, as one Silicon Valley venture capitalist put it, "are a bunch of entrepreneurial California cowboys." Get the image? Then you see the problem.

Roche execs may be guzzling celebratory champagne (somehow we can't imagine it, but it's possible). But along with its buyout of Genentech's promising pipeline come worries about payer reimbursements. President Obama's push for comparative-effectiveness research could leave some Genentech drugs struggling, BusinessWeek reports. Some previous head-to-head studies have shown the benefits of expensive cancer biologics are small; if that trend continues, the bottom line could suffer.


Akemi Allison-Tacha BS, HT (ASCP) HTL
President
Phoenix Lab Consulting
Specializing in Histology, SS, IHC, & TMA
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