Yahoo Finance Roche (RHHBY) to Acquire LumiraDx's Point of Care Technology
Roche RHHBY announced that it entered into a definitive agreement to acquire LumiraDx's LMDX Point of Care technology, combining multiple diagnostic modalities on a single platform.
Based in the U.K., LumiraDx is a next-generation point-of-care diagnostics company.
Per the terms, Roche will pay $295 million and an additional payment of up to $55 million to fund the Point of Care technology platform business until the closing of this acquisition.
The transaction is expected to close by mid-2024.
LumiraDx’s technology integrates multiple Point of Care tests on a simple-to-use single instrument and brings more affordable and accessible testing to patients worldwide.
The acquisition will complement Roche’s centralized diagnostics portfolio across Clinical Chemistry, Immunochemistry, Coagulation and Molecular and multiple disease areas.
Through this buyout, Roche intends to provide better Point of Care solutions that span the entire patient journey, from home, pharmacy and general practitioner’s office to the emergency room, intensive care unit and beyond.
RHHBY’s Point of Care solutions generated sales of CHF 865 million in the first nine months of 2023, down 72%.
Roche's shares have lost 5.1% in the past six months against the industry’s growth of 6.9%.
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RHHBY’s performance in 2023 was impacted by a sharp decline in COVID-19 test sales and exchange rate fluctuations, even though the diagnostics base business maintained its growth.
The Diagnostics business accounted for roughly 24% of the company’s total sales in the first nine months of 2023.
Meanwhile, in the pharmaceutical division, new drugs, namely Ocrevus, Hemlibra, Evrysdi and Tecentriq, boosted growth and the uptake of the new eye drug Vabysmo (launched at the beginning of 2022) was outstanding.
However, competition from biosimilars for established cancer medicines like Avastin, MabThera/Rituxan and Herceptin hurt sales.
The company recently announced that it will acquire the privately owned U.S.-based company Carmot Therapeutics for $2.7 billion in a bid to foray into the lucrative obesity market.
Earlier, Roche also recently acquired Telavant Holdings for an upfront payment of approximately $7.1 billion. Telavant holds the rights in the United States and Japan to RVT-3101, a promising new therapy in development for people suffering from inflammatory bowel disease, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.
Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider
Roche currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Some better-ranked stocks in the healthcare sector are Entrada Therapeutics TRDA and Dynavax Technologies DVAX. TRDA sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and DVAX carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Entrada’s loss per share estimate for 2023 has narrowed from $2.07 to 9 cents in the past 60 days. The same for 2024 has narrowed from $2.35 to $2.04 during the same time frame.
Dynavax’s loss per share estimate for 2023 has narrowed from 23 cents to 12 cents in the past 90 days. The bottom-line estimate for 2024 rose from 3 cents to 18 cents during the same period. Shares of DVAX have risen 9.4% in the past six months.
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Roche Holding AG (RHHBY) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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