ARIUS Research: Stock Up on Roche Takeover Bid

ARIUS Research Inc. (AIURF.PK) shot out of the gate Wednesday morning, rising 12% to $2.40 at 9:45 a.m. ET. after ARIUS' board of directors agreed to a $191-million takeover bid from pharmeuctical giant Roche (RHHBY.PK).  

Roche will pay C$2.44 per common share  for ARIUS and has also agreed to acquire all of the issued and outstanding warrants of ARIUS. Roche will pay C$1.44 for each Class F Warrant and C$1.78 for each Class G Warrant. 

The deal is subject to shareholder and warrant holder approval as court approval. ARIUS said shareholders, warrant holders and management representing 54.3% of outstanding shares and 72.3% of outstanding warrants have already agreed to support the transaction

ARIUS is the developer of a proprietary antibody platform called FunctionFIRST [TM], which rapidly identifies and selects antibodies based on their functional ability to affect disease before progressing into clinical development.

Lee Babiss, head of global research at Roche said:

ARIUS' promising platform and early pipeline of new antibody candidates represent an excellent fit with our own progressing research in the fields of cancer and immunology. 

The FunctionFIRST(TM) approach provides us with a large library of antibodies from which we can identify the best new drug candidates for the development of clinically differentiated medicines.

With the ARIUS deal, Roche has now played a significant part in the fortunes of two Canadian biotech stocks these week.  On Tuesday, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant pulled the plug on its exclusive right to license Isotechnika Inc.'s drug voclosporin for solid organ transplant, sending shares in Isotechnika down almost 50%.