Roche has abandoned its attempt to take over US biotech company Illumina after a year of increasingly bitter argument.

The pharmaceuticals and diagnostics giant has seen an increased cash offer and an attempt to take over the gene sequencing company’s board of directors fail.

Roche’s Chairman, Franz Humer (pictured), has indicated that Roche is interested in discussions with other biotech companies that have similar platforms.

Roche’s pursuit of Illumina has been likened by industry observers to Gollum’s doomed quest for his “precious” ring.

It began at the start of 2012, with Roche offering $5.7bn to acquire the US company – an offer described by Illumina as “grossly inadequate”.

Roche extended its deadline by two months and then increased the offer to $6.8bn, citing a positive “market reaction”.

The pharma giant urged Illumina’s shareholders to support the deal by electing Roche representatives to the biotech company’s board of directors.

“As a standalone company, Illumina’s future is far from certain,” commented Roche’s CEO, Severin Schwan, at that time.

However, the Illumina board’s annual meeting did not elect a majority of Roche supporters, and Illumina CEO Jay Flatley called the bid “opportunistic”.

Despite the predictions of industry experts that a deal would be struck, Humer has announced that Roche is no longer pursuing the biotech firm.

The Illumina takeover was a “nice to have”, not a “must have”, he claimed, and Roche was considering other specialists – such as Life Technologies and Oxford Nanopore Technologies – to provide its diagnostics division with a less costly gene sequencing platform.

Meanwhile, Illumina reports 20% revenue growth in the last quarter. It plans to expand into the increasingly profitable field of cancer diagnostics and targeted drugs.

West Middlesex University Hospital Trust is seeking a merger after determining that it cannot achieve foundation trust status independently by the April 2014 deadline.

The district hospital has said that its “reconfiguration” plans will not have a major impact on its finances until 2015–16.

At present, it said, possible mergers with NHS foundation trusts and takeovers by private health providers are being considered.

Trust Chief Executive Dame Jacqueline Docherty said: “Despite our optimism about the long-term viability of the site, the trust is not able to meet the financial criteria required to become a standalone foundation trust by the Department of Health deadline of April 2014. The board has therefore agreed to explore partnership options that would enable us to meet the required timeline for FT status.

“The preferred option for the North West London reconfiguration proposals will secure a healthy future in the long term for our hospital site. However, the timetable for implementation means that the changes will not have a major impact on the trust’s income until 2015–16 and beyond.”

An earlier business analysis of London’s hospital sector by McKinsey said that West Middlesex was “not viable” as an independent trust.

NHS North West London is carrying out a review of services across its eight constituent PCTs, including West Middlesex. It is expected that a number of A&E units will be downgraded.

Daniel Elkeles, Accountable Officer for Inner North West London CCG, commented: “We are committed to supporting West Middlesex University Hospital Trust’s board to develop a robust and sustainable future strategy.”

The Beecroft review of employment law has implications for both the pharma industry and the NHS. Maxine Vaccine considers the significance of a policy review designed to help companies lay people off.

The Beecroft report on UK employment recommends a number of measures that would make it easier for employers to make staff redundant, dismiss employees and manage the HR aspects of a takeover.

The report, commissioned by David Cameron, urges a “bonfire of regulations” around job security:

• The mandatory 90-day consultation period for a redundancy programme would be reduced to 30 days – or to five days if the company is in “severe distress”.

• Loss of earnings compensation for employees who make successful unfair dismissal claims would be capped, while tribunals would be strongly pushed to reach a ‘no fault’ conclusion.

• The right of employees to retain terms and conditions (‘transfer of undertakings’) when a company is taken over would be scrapped.

Venture capitalist Adrian Beecroft, a leader in the private healthcare field, insists these measures will support “job creation”.

The report has already drawn strong criticism from Business Secretary Vince Cable, who described its underlying principles as “nonsense”.

Cable said: “British workers are an asset, not just a cost for company bosses. That is why I am opposed to the ideological zealots who want to encourage British firms to fire at will.”

However, Business and Enterprise Minister Mark Prisk – who took Cable’s place without notice in a Commons debate on the report – said the Government was already “actioning” 17 of Beecroft’s 23 proposals.

There are two reasons why the UK pharma industry should pay close attention to these proposals.

The first reason is that they clearly impact on the pharma industry, where redundancies and takeovers are commonplace and claims of unfair dismissal are not unknown. The belief that making it much easier to lay off staff will lead to a revival of the job market seems naïve at best. It may make life easier for the HR Director, but it could spell disaster for industry staff and their families.

The second reason – the sting in the report’s tail – is that Beecroft clearly has the NHS in his sights. He runs the private equity firm Apax Partners, which owns two of the UK’s leading private healthcare companies: Capio and General Healthcare. As private sector takeovers of Foundation Trusts and CCGs become the norm, the Beecroft measures will grease the wheels of asset-stripping.

That phrase “severe distress” seems tailor-made to describe the imploding NHS organisations of the near future. It’s what former NHS Chief Commissioner Mark Britnell meant when he told private healthcare providers in late 2010: “The NHS will be shown no mercy, and the best time to take advantage of that will be in the next couple of years.”

Interestingly, Britnell – now an independent consultant – said recently that he would like to go back into the NHS.

He’d better hurry.

Changes to employment law recommended in a new Government policy review would make it much easier for pharma companies in the UK to get rid of staff.

Cuts in the consultation period for redundancy, compensation for unfair dismissal and employee rights following takeovers are among the reforms urged by the Beecroft report.

The proposals, commissioned by PM David Cameron, were attacked by Business Secretary Vince Cable as “nonsense”.

Venture capitalist Adrian Beecroft (pictured), a leader in the private healthcare field, has urged a “bonfire of regulations” including:

• Reduction of the mandatory 90-day consultation period for a redundancy programme to 30 days – or to five days if the company is in “severe distress”.

• A cap on loss of earnings compensation for employees who make successful unfair dismissal claims.

• Major reform of employees’ right to retain existing terms and conditions (‘transfer of undertakings’) when a company is subject to a takeover.

The report claims these measures will support “job creation”.

Vince Cable called for Lib Dem opposition to the reforms, saying: “Some people think that if labour rights were stripped down to the most basic minimum, employers would start hiring and the economy would soar again. This is complete nonsense.”

Adrian Beecroft is head of private equity firm Apax Partners, which owns two of the UK’s largest private healthcare companies: Capio and General Healthcare.

US biopharma corporation Amgen has signed a merger agreement to acquire German biotech company Micromet for $1.16 billion.

The deal will bring Amgen a new leukaemia drug and the BiTE drug development technology, potentially applicable to a range of blood cancers.

Micromet’s Munich site will become an Amgen R&D facility.

Amgen will gain the rights to:

• the Bispecific T cell Engager (BiTE) antibody technology, a validated platform for drug development in oncology

• blinatumomab, a BiTE antibody in Phase 2 development for treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and in early development for treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL)

• solitomab, a BiTE antibody in Phase 1 development for treatment of advanced solid tumours.

“The acquisition of Micromet is an opportunity to acquire an innovative oncology asset with global rights and a validated technology platform with broad potential clinical applications,” said Kevin Sharer, CEO of Amgen.

“Blinatumomab will serve as an important complement to our oncology pipeline and is representative of our corporate strategy, which is focused on developing and successfully commercialising therapeutics to treat patients with grievous illness.”

Christian Itin, CEO of Micromet, commented: “Amgen's extensive resources and experience in the development and commercialisation of biologics promise to speed blinatumomab's path to market, expand its development across a broader range of B-cell malignancies and maximise the full potential of our novel BiTE technology.”

Between 1,000 and 1,500 jobs are expected to be lost at Teva Pharmaceutical Industries as part of the company’s cost-cutting measures.

Reports from Israel claim the majority of the layoffs will be made in the US and Europe and mainly focused in Teva’s recently acquired Cephalon’s generic business.

The reports say that Teva is hoping to raise $500 million in synergies from its takeover with job losses expected to raise the majority of its target.

Teva has already said it is planning to cut sales, marketing and administrative expenses by $300 million, R&D by between $120 million and $150 million, and production costs by $50 million to $80 million. R&D savings would be achieved by cutting duplicate operations, the company said.

Teva has a history of job losses following takeovers of generic companies. In 2008 it bought US generic specialist Barr and reduced its workforce by 10%, reports say.

A reduction of 1,000 jobs at Cephalon would represent a loss of 27% roles before the takeover. But one company where job losses will be made, the reports say, is at Mepha, the Swiss generics manufacturer Cephalon bought last year. The company had 620 jobs prior to the acquisition.

Scottish diagnostic device company Axis-Shield has accepted a takeover bid by US ‘connected health’ specialist Alere three months after rejecting a slightly lower offer from the same company.

Alere is motivated to acquire Axis-Shield’s Afinion multi-parameter point of care testing devices, which compete with its US diagnostic products.

Axis-Shield rejected an offer of £230m from the US company in July but has now accepted an offer of £235m, an increase of only 2%.

The Dundee-based company blamed the “volatile economic and market backdrop” for its amended decision.

Alere took its second offer directly to Axis-Shield’s shareholders following the company’s rejection of its first offer.

Business analyst Mike Mitchell of Seymour Pierce commented that the increase in the offer was “not much more than a token gesture,” adding that “under more settled circumstances, the board may have considered to take a more robust position.”

Afinion, described by Axis-Shield as “a new concept in Point of Care”, is a multiparameter analyser device for on-the-spot testing of whole blood, plasma or urine samples for a range of characteristics including HbA1c and cholesterol.

Based in Massachusetts, Alere specialises in diagnostic testing systems for a range of conditions, supporting home-based healthcare through a ‘connected health’ strategy.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company has acquired Nycomed in a deal worth €9.6 million on a cash-free, debt-free basis.

The combined company will be commercially active in the therapeutic areas of metabolic diseases, gastroenterology, oncology, cardiovascular health, CNS diseases, inflammatory and immune disorders, respiratory diseases and pain management.

Current Takeda Executive Vice President of International Operations, Dr Frank Morich, has been appointed as CEO of Nycomed.

Yasuchika Hasegawa, President and CEO of Takeda, said: “Partnering the two organisations will have complementary effects and further increase our potential to become a truly global pharmaceutical company.”

Dr Morich said that the combined company’s pharmaceutical market will cover more than 70 countries, with a presence in Japan, North America, Europe and Asia.

“I look forward to bringing Takeda and Nycomed together to ensure we can achieve enhanced revenue, growth and diversification, while maintaining the strong momentum of both companies,” he said.

Par Pharmaceutical has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Anchen Pharmaceuticals in a cash deal worth $410 million.

California-based Anchen currently has five commercialised products, 27 Abbreviated New Drug Applications with the FDA – five believed to be first-to-file – and a further 26 products in development.

Patrick G. LePore, Chairman, CEO and President of Par, says the takeover will expand the company’s “research and development infrastructure” which will double “our product opportunities”.

Anchen, who currently employ more than 200 staff at its state-of-the-art manufacturing and warehouse facility, anticipates launching 8-10 niche generic products by 2013.

Mr LePore added: “Anchen also shares Par's highly entrepreneurial culture and cost-efficient approach to product development, which should allow for a seamless integration.”

Par expects the transaction to be completed by the end of the year.