Recombinant DNA

If Roche’s $44bn offer to buy out minority investors in Gententech succeeds, it would be the second time the US biotech giant’s Swiss parent has bought out minority shareholders. Roche’s new offer is a smart twist on history. The Swiss group owned two-thirds of Genentech in the 1990s. In purchased the remaining stake in 1999 for $4bn. Roche immediately took Genentech public again, selling 44% of the company over two years for $9.7bn. This was clever indeed. The Swiss emerged with a tidy profit, ...