In a clear effort to demonstrate to the investment world that Roche's $42 billion bid for the outstanding shares of Genentech is woefully inadequate, the giant biotech company today said it could win approvals on 15 new drugs between 2011 and 2015. And by 2015 Genentech says it could introduce 24 new uses of existing drugs in its portfolio.
With Roche's hostile tender offer for the company scheduled to expire in a week and a half, Genentech CEO Art Levinson opted to make the company's annual investor presentation several weeks earlier than had been planned originally. And he bullishly forecast annual earnings growth of 16 percent from 2010 to 2015.
"Obviously they're not all gonna work, but we have a very good track record," said Levinson about his pipeline prospects. The one trial winning the most attention right now involves Avastin, which is being studied for earlier stage colon cancer. Positive data on that added indication could be worth in the neighborhood of $1 billion to $2 billion in added annual sales.
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